the Critérium des Porteurs de Journaux (Criterium of Newspaper Carriers) race in Paris. The event featured real newspaper couriers, known as porteurs de presse, who delivered newspapers across Paris.

Long before the current courier competitions and other Bike Messengers World Championships, Parisians had organised bicycle delivery races, such as the "Brassard des Estafettes" in 1897, the Criterium des Messageries Hachette or the Paris-Versailles races in tricycles. 

But the most popular is the the Newspaper Carriers' Criterium which began in 1926, and the Tour de Paris or the Cyclo-Porters' Criterium in 1937 

These races were organized with the help of newspaper publishing houses and courier companies

Each print media outlet assembled its own team by mixing their couriers with some former professional road champions and Belgian riders.

Many porters were amateur or semi-professional racers who used their jobs for training, so it was natural to organize a race of the porters every year. 

Porters were paid per trip, and they rode so fast that they made more money than the board members of the newspapers for which they worked. 

The race was a big deal, with the main roads of Paris closed off for the event. The newspapers reported in great detail, as they would of a Tour de France stage.

The course started in the newspaper quarter of Paris, on rue Montmartre, went around the Boulevards Extérieurs, passing through eight checkpoints, delivery and exchange of the 33 lb load of newspapers, before climbing the hill of Montmartre, and arrival at the top of rue Lepic.

 At the half-way point, they had to exchange their load for another pack of newspapers. Much of the course went over cobblestones, and not all were as smooth as the ones in the photo above.

These races took place in the middle of winter - sometimes in the snow - in February, and later in November. Three main categories: Men, Women and Disabled, but also Veterans and also a team ranking.

These still exist in messenger circles although with fake packages. 

Cycle Messenger World Champs, North American Cycle Courier Champs, European Cycle Messenger Champs, and the Cargobike Alleycat in Paris

One cool movie was made that touched on this, Premium Rush https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/12/premium-rush-is-great-bike-chase-movie.html

https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/print/issues/bq-19/

https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/te5jdh/the_criterium_des_porteurs_de_journaux_race_in/

https://velos-mont-valerien.over-blog.com/article-le-criterium-des-porteurs-de-journaux-1-episode-64984453.html

Next time you hear law enforcement talk about how bad street racing is, point to this police race between Harley and Indian

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/654324954604252/?fref=nf

Busa puts a complete smack down on the 458 Italia

Found on https://www.facebook.com/pages/C10-Trucks/442473129180758?fref=nf

pure cool on the hoof, but what's it built for?

found on http://theoldiebutgoodie.tumblr.com/image/63281528684

not sure what to make of the rims... except they look like strong rims meant for racing with corners or circles... but the intake tubes make me think drag racing- and the oversize tire cutouts? huh.. lots of tire travel expected

Shooter probably has the answer:
comment at 3:36 AM
I grew up around dirt track stock car racing.....and (except for the exposed injector stacks) this looks just like what I watched race in the mid-late 70's. Fiberglass bodies began showing up in the Late 70's and were on all competitive cars by 1980.
So, my guess would be either asphalt stock car racing or Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

I just recently learned that there is an annual Model T race, the Montana 500 ( June 17th to 19th this year)

thanks to, and good wishes for Alex and Sandy in this years Montana 500!

Photos from last years coverage of the event at http://s163.photobucket.com/user/modeltbabe/library/2012%20Montana%20500?sort=3&page=0

More links to it at http://www.antiqueautoranch.com/montana500/indexnonrefresh.html 

Winning a race by the divide and conquer method

anyone have an idea what the green number 11 is? Why it has 2 hood scoops?

a wrong turn put them in the mines, but they kept racing

2011 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational to premiere on SPEED channel Saturday, February 25 at 2 p.m. ET, 5pm west coast

OPTIMA Batteries today announced that the 2011 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, presented by K&N Filters and Wilwood Disc Brakes, will be nationally televised on SPEED, premiering Saturday, February 25 at 2 p.m. ET. This one-hour action-packed broadcast brings viewers an insider look into an event that takes 50 of the hottest street-legal cars from import and domestic manufacturers, and puts them to the test through a series of performance and design events, in order to crown the 2011 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car.

The 2011 OPTIMA Invitational TV Show is scheduled to re-air on SPEED during the following times:
· Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 3 a.m. ET
· Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. ET
· Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 11 a.m. ET

Please visit http://www.optimainvitational.com/ and the OPTIMA Batteries Facebook page for more information on the OPTIMA Invitational, additional air times, participants, official rules and more.

The list of 2011 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational sponsors includes: presenting sponsors K&N Filters and Wilwood Disc Brakes, and race event sponsors BFGoodrich, Ridetech, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Raybestos, and Detroit Speed and Engineering. Additionally, The Roadster Shop, MagnaFlow, RECARO, Harman Kardon and Pioneer provided associate sponsorships for the OPTIMA Invitational.

the 1907 Spyker that competed in the Peking to Paris great race

Found on http://www.cardesign.ru/forum/diskussii/obschenie/1352

 the Itala that won the race is here: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html

The challenge to drive from Peking, China (modern day Beijing) to Paris, France in 1907, using totally untested automobiles, was taken up by five men:
- Prince Scipione Borghese, accompanied by his mechanic Ettore Guizzardi. They were further accompanied by Italian journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr.
- Charles Goddard, accompanied by journalist Jean du Taillis.
- Auguste Pons and Octave Foucault, his mechanic.
- Georges Cormier.
- Victor Collignon.

On the 30th of August, twenty days later, the Spyker, followed by the two De Dions, arrived in Paris. Charles Goddard wasn’t behind the wheel of the Spyker; due to money-troubles, he wasn’t able to finish the race! But his car won second place and that was probably good enough
found on http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/peking-to-paris-the-original-amazing-race/

New York to Paris Race of 1908 (The Great Race), the German entry drivers in the top photo

found on http://www.atomicantiques.com/2010/02/03/german-racers To learn more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_New_York_to_Paris_Race

above image found on http://www.hagopgaragem.com/

A MINI is racing in the Dakar (now through South America)

Six BMW X3CCs and the brand new Mini All4 Racing will represent Sven Quandt's team on 13 timed special stages and 5,020km of competitive action in a route of 9,618km over the next 14 days across northern Argentina and Chile.

Quandt has assembled a team of over 80 personnel - the largest line-up in X-raid's eight-year history - to tackle the world's most difficult and infamous off-road rally.

to learn about the Dakar rally http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2011/us/route.html

I learned about the Mini from http://www.ausmotive.com/ but you can shoot straight to the team website http://www.x-raid.de/x-raid-news/News/mini-all4-racing-first-test.htm

Did you know there was a race to the South Pole in a Biodiesel powered vehicel?

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=929487&page=3

The winner of the 1907 Paris to Peking endurance race

The 1907 ITALA mod. 35/45 HP won the prize of a magnum of Mumm champagne. The race went without any assistance through country where there were no roads or road-maps. For the race, camels carrying fuel left Peking and set up at stations along the route to give fuel to the racers. The race followed a telegraph route so that the race was well covered in newspapers at the time. Each car had one journalist as a passenger, with the journalists sending stories from the telegraph stations regularly through the race.

The 9,300 mile race was kicked off by a challenge by a newspaper "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"

It was held during a time when cars were fairly new, and went through remote areas of Asia where people were not familiar with motor travel. The route between Peking and Lake Baikal had only previously been attempted on horseback. The race was won by Italian Prince Scipione Borghese of the Borghese family, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr. He was confident and had even taken a detour from Moscow to St Petersburg for a dinner which was held for the team, and afterwards headed back to Moscow and rejoined the race. The event was not intended to be a race or competition, but quickly became one due to its pioneering nature and the technical superiority of the Italians' car driven by Count Scipione Borghese, winning by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically, the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable stroke, sleeve valve, and "Avalve" rotary types

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_to_Paris and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itala

https://www.facebook.com/napa.mathis?fref=photo

A movie was made in 1953 about the London to Brighton historic race, Genevieve

from http://tukker.blogspot.com/ which is NSFW (not safe for work) for dissapointingly little info on the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045808

I just learned that semi tractors race up Pikes Peak ( I already knew that almost everything else races there)

Just a thing of beauty, the colors, the history, the factory race cars

Via: http://speedseekers.blogspot.com

Terrific snapshot of the determined spirit to win

http://www.lbvcr.com/gallery.cfm/flag/2/category/18/id/380/category_name/2007%20LBVCR%20Photographer%20of%20the%20Year

Here's a story about the "Great Race"... and how freaking expensive it is to participate

What do you call someone who wants to drive around the world in a 1918 Chevy V8 Touring Car?

Luke Rizzuto wants to enter the 2008 Great Race in the Schuster Class with his '18 Chevy, one of only seven in existence.

According to Rizzuto, he was invited to be one of only forty drivers because of the great condition of the classic car.

Just for the privilige of joining this race, an entrance fee of $125,500 must be forked over for a sponsored car, and $109,500 for a private car.

Sadly, Rizzuto does not have the cash to join his fellow adventure seekers, so he has resorted to issuing a press release and hoping the media will pimp his cause.

If you want to help Luke Rizzuto on his way, get in touch with him through his website, or e-mail him at luke@lukesgreatrace2008.com.

Via : http://www.worldcarfans.com/9071219.012/around-the-world-in-18-chevy