Vanderbilt Cup Races

This is a very nice set of photos of an iconic race. Although a part of these are known photos, there are several which are new to me. A few corrections. In the first part the driver of the 90hp Mercedes with nr. 27 was Baron de Caters, a famous Belgian car pioneer. In the second part the car with nr. 26 was a (Georges) Richard-Brasier, driven by Georges Richard himself. Georges Richard got seriously hurt after hitting a tree near Angouleme trying to avoid a spectator, and ending in a ditch. It seems that this accident caused the split between Georges Richard and Charles-Henry Brasier, the former leaving his firm to start a new one: Unic. Also William Vanderbilt was reported having ended up in a ditch, but I never have seen photos of this incident.
I can only confirm Tim Helck’s assumption about the Peter Helck drawings. The Gabriel’ Mors with nr. 168 is very realistic and seems to have been drawn on the basis of existing photos, but the other car as well as both wrecks seem to be phantasy. The blue car has a realistic appearance, but there was no car in the race with the side lid of the hood removed in this way, and with the short exhaust pipes visible like here. Also the accidents have no resemblance with any of the known accidents. Most of these were photographed and this photographic evidence would have been the only source for those who had not watched the race in person. For a moment I thought the blue car could have been a sort of Turcat-Méry impression, but in the book ‘Great Auto Races’ a drawing is present of the Turcat-Méry. This image is clearly different from the blue car.
Another drawing by Peter Helck appeared in an article by Ken W. Purdy with the title “Classics of the Road”, but I have no idea when and in which magazine it was published. The car on this drawing seems to be the De Dietrich of Stead. Compare the drawing with the added picture of Stead in La Vie au Grand Air, and it is clear that he has drawn a faithful copy of the car. But also here I cannot relate the accident of the red car on the left to any of the cars in the race.
So it is also my impression that Peter Helck caught the atmosphere of the race based on existing reports as well as on his vivid imagination. The result: beautiful drawings!

Finally I’d like to wish every fan of this site a happy and above all healthy 2021!

HAPPY NEW YEAR and thank you for your continued dedication. Stay safe !

Ariejan,
Thank you for the additional information.  All the cars and drivers were captioned on the rear of the photos by Peter Helck of which I just provided along with the photo.  However some of Peter’s handwriting was hard to decipher - now that you’ve provided the correct spellings I definitely agree with you and I’ll revise the captions accordingly.  One more set of the photographs is currently being created for the last part of the series.  Thanks very much for your input and best wishes for 2021.

Ariejan,
Ken Purdy’s article titled “Classics of the Road” to which you refer was published in 1955 but I’m afraid I can’t tell you in which magazine.

Found among Peter Helck’s black and white sketches in the Helck Family Collection is this one of a dangerous curve in the Paris to Madrid race. Similar to Ariejan’s picture above except that the dog in this one didn’t appear to be quick enough.