RSS Share 03/07/2006
Reunion For Grand Prix Inspired Sisters

Almost 100 years to the day since the first Grand Prix was won by Renault’s AK 90CV, Goodwood will be graced by the appearance of two of the closest relatives of the winning car when a pair of 1907 Vanderbilt Cup cars appear at the Festival of Speed.

The Renault AI 35CV is virtually identical to the 12.9-litre AK 90CV, but powered by a 7.4-litre engine. One of the editions on display is owned by the Indianapolis Museum, while the second – known as ‘Agatha’ – is owned by German collector and Renault dealer Wolfgang Auge. Both cars will be on display and ascend the hillclimb course, with Auge at the controls of ‘Agatha’ and Bill Spoerle, Restoration Manager at the Indianpolis Motor Speedway Foundation driving the other. ‘Agatha’ came to Britain before World War I and their meeting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed is their first in almost a century.

One of the most significant surviving Edwardian racing cars, the duo are two of 10 cars commissioned by William Kissam Vanderbilt Jr, the American millionaire sponsor of the Vanderbilt Cup race series run near his home in Long Island. His aim was to further the cause of motoring and create a race series for the super rich, the Renaults costing $8,500 each. Five other cars were produced at the same time for general sale.

The list of customers for the Vanderbilt Renault’s included ‘Agatha’s’ first owner Harry Payne Whitney, Vanderbilt’s cousin and heir to a cotton gin fortune. Another owner was mining millionaire Robert Guggenheim, sponsor of the 1909 Guggenheim Trophy TransAmerica race.

The car boasts a strong racing pedigree, as befits a machine based on the winner of the first-ever Grand Prix. In 1907, Marcus Bernin drove ‘Agatha’ to victory in the 24-hour race at New York’s Morris Park Motordrome, averaging 45mph as he covered 1,079 miles. ‘Agatha’ also won the 1909 Brighton Beach 24-hour race, driven by Raffalovitch and Basle at an average speed of 43.75mph.

Coming to England before the Great War, she was owned by Lord Kimberley, the famous surgeon Sir Harold Gillies and the great motor enthusiast Marcus Chambers of Clapham. He advertised in the small ads section of the August, 1935 edition of Motor Sport, offering, under the heading ‘Veteran Car’: “1907 Sports Renault, fast and reliable. £30 or offer.”

The buyers were brothers Anthony and John Mills, who gave her the name ‘Agatha’. When Anthony Mills, a squadron leader in the RAF, was killed shortly after D-Day, ‘Agatha’ was sold to Charles Dunn who kept her in storage until 1980. An English enthusiast persuaded Dunn to sell and, after an auction in 1992, German Renault dealer Wolfgang Auge bought ‘Agatha’.

Her racing history continues to grow as Auge has competed in the Gordon Bennett Centennial race in Germany in 2004 and the same race in 2005.

Aged 99, ‘Agatha’ is still a competitive lady ready to add more honours to her remarkable history.