1914 Grand Prix Season

The 1914 Grand Prix season consisted of Grand Prix races across Europe and the United States until abbreviated by the outbreak of World War I.

The Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize were held again after a year’s abeyance, this time raced at Santa Monica, California. European cars arrived in force to contest the Indianapolis 500. French cars dominated the race taking the top four places with victory going to René Thomas in a Delage. The unofficial AAA national championship would be awarded to Ralph DePalma.

The French Grand Prix was in Lyon, this time with a maximum engine size of 4.5-litres. Held in the shadow of political crisis in Europe, it was hailed as the greatest race to date, after an epic battle between the Peugeot and Mercedes. After Georges Boillot had engine problems on the last lap, it left the German team with a dominating 1-2-3 finish, led by Christian Lautenschlager who had won the race before, in 1908.

It proved to be the last major race before war overtook Europe in August 1914.

Major Races

Sources: Rendall 1993, p.358Monkhouse 1953, p.232-79

Regulations and Technical

The three main American races all ran to different regulations: the Vanderbilt Cup’s engine limits were 301 – 600 cu in, Indianapolis had a maximum engine size of 450 cu in, while the Grand Prize had an open formula.

Hoping to minimise the impact of the big-engined cars of foreign manufacturers, the ACF changed its regulations again for the first time to impose a maximum engine size Rendall 1993, p.72-3 – of 4.5-litres, along with an allowable weight range of 800-1100kg (excluding fluids and tools). This tended to favour those companies that had invested in ''voiturette'' racing, Peugeot, Delage and Sunbeam. Ludvigsen 2009, p.33 There was also an entry limit of five cars per manufacturer.

For this, Peugeot unveiled its new EX-5 from Ernest Henry, with a twin-overhead cam 4.5-litre four-cylinder engine. Both the Delages and Peugeots had four-wheel brakes for the first time, along with FIAT. Rendall 1993, p.74-5 In response, the Mercedes 18/100 GP, designed by Paul Daimler, developed 115 bhp. The 4.5-litre engine had four valves per cylinder and a single overhead camshaft. Cimarosti 1997, p.49-50 Fox 1973, p.15-6 Gone was the chain-drive, instead a lighter live rear-axle was used. However, they did persist with rear brakes only. Despite a better top-end speed from the Peugeot’s streamlined rear-end, Fox 1973, p.19 the Mercedes’ lower centre-of-gravity and better road-holding gave it an edge over the French cars. Cimarosti 1997, p.49-50

Season review

The Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize were revived this year and once again held as a combined meeting, this time on an 8-mile road circuit at Santa Monica, California. The press touted the Cup as a grudge match between rivals Ralph DePalma and Barney Oldfield. DePalma had walked out from his role as team leader at Mercer when they hired Oldfield without asking him first. DePalma retrieved the Mercedes with which he had won the 1912 race. From the start Oldfield’s teammate Eddie Pullen took the lead until he lost a wheel. Then Oldfield and DePalma ran wheel to wheel until DePalma sold a dummy on stopping for a tyre change. Oldfield took the bait and pitted, allowing the older Mercedes to race onto victory.

Two days later, 250000 spectators and most of the same cars returned for the Grand Prize. Spencer Wishart led in his Mercer for most of the first half of the race until stopped by engine problems. DePalma took over but this time his engine gave out as well. Pullen got to the front and carried on to win – his Mercer being the first American car to win the Grand Prize delighting the crowd.

After Peugeot’s success at Indianapolis in 1913, more European teams returned for the 1914 race and the race promised to be a great showdown between the best drivers from both sides of the Atlantic with most of the best teams present. Peugeot sent its new EX-5 with regular team drivers Georges Boillot and Jules Goux (returning 1913 winner) along with a 3-litre EX-3 for Belgian Arthur Duray. Delage sent its 7.0-litre Type Y for René Thomas and Albert Guyot. Venables 2009, p.32 Peugeot engineer Ettore Bugatti had Ernest Friderich in one of his own cars. As well as an Italian Isotta Fraschini and a Belgian Excelsior, Ralph Mulford returned with his Mercedes. Sunbeam came from England with Jean Chassagne and another car for Harry Grant. The American teams from Mercer, Stutz and Mason entered, with much the same driver line-ups from Santa Monica. Barney Oldfield however had switched to Stutz. Inaugural winner Ray Harroun designed the Maxwell car for Teddy Tetzlaff and Billy Carlson.

Boillot was the fastest in the elimination trials, setting a lap record of 99.9 mph. Second was team-mate Goux with Tetzlaff third. In a big surprise, Ralph DePalma failed to qualify in his privateer Mercedes. In the random draw it was Chassagne’s Sunbeam that got the pole position, while Boillot got the second-to-last position of the 30 qualifiers.

The three Peugeots soon got to the front and were setting the pace until thwarted by tyre problems. One delaminated on Boillot’s car spinning him off the track and Goux lost time with a number of stops. On lap 42 Ray Gilhooley crashed his Isotta on the back straight. As his mechanic was escaping the wreck Joe Dawson had to take drastic avoiding action and rolled his Marmon in an accident that ended his career. In the end it was dominant victory for René Thomas and Delage, who led for over half the race winning with over a 6-minute, four-lap margin from Arthur Duray in the 3-litre Peugeot. Thomas’ teammate Guyot was third with Goux coming in fourth. First American home was Barney Oldfield, fifth in the Stutz.

After another dozen rounds at eight other circuits, the AAA national championship would be unofficially awarded to Ralph DePalma. On 4th July at the Sioux City race, Eddie Rickenbacker

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