The Central Garage car museum in Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe is currently showing the exhibition "120 Years of the 1904 Gordon Bennett Race".
The Gordon Bennett Cup was the first truly international, annually recurring racing event and was held between 1900 and 1905. The race, which was the brainchild of newspaper mogul James Gordon Bennett Jr., was originally organized by the Automobile Club de France and was intended to promote the international automobile industry. Each country was allowed to nominate three participants. Until 1903, elimination races were held to find the most suitable candidates. By 1905, however, the industry had become so diverse that it became impossible to enforce the rules of the Cup, so the era of Grand Prix racing began in 1906.
The 1904 event, which started in Bad Homburg, prompted Dieter Dressel, owner of the Central Garage car museum, to put together an exhibition about the Gordon Bennett Cup together with the well-known German historian Thomas Ulrich. The 1904 race was supported by Kaiser Wilhelm II and was intended to illustrate Germany's technical leadership. This included a grandstand, built at a cost of over 300,000 RM, which was recreated as a diorama model for the exhibition over the course of two years. A number of cars are also on display, including a Richard-Brasier and several Mercedes Simplex and Adler. The cars are on loan and are occasionally replaced.
The exhibition will be on display until the end of the year. Admission is free. Further information on the museum's website
