1907 Zust Ready for Great Race

Filed in archive Great Drives , Italian Cars , Rally/Retro-Rally , Rare Europeans on March 24, 2008

One-hundred years ago six cars and crews set out on an adventure that was billed as "The World's Greatest Race." At a time when cars were so primitive the public had little faith, manufacturers were eager to prove that an automobile could be a dependable servant. Two newspapers, one in New York and one in Paris, agreed to share the cost. The race would start in New York, travel across America (when roads were mere trails in gumbo and dust), then proceed north to Alaska, cross the Bering Strait by ferry, finally work their way through Russia and the orient to finish in Paris. As it turned out, the Alaska-Russia phase had to be cancelled when the Strait froze over. Tales of survival, many of them humorous, are too many to quote here, except to say that the American Winton finished first, all three French competitors were forced out, a German Protos was second, and the Italian Zust was third.

Fast-forward a century and the 2008 Great Race is to begin again, albeit with few of the hardships its 1908 crew survived. Cars representing the era will compete, mostly for the glory of replicating what their forebears survived. One will be a 1907 Italian Zust, the very car that finished third. That it still exists is a surprise; that it was owned, restored, and entered from Ladysmith, BC, 1.5 hours from my home on Vancouver Island, is even more surprising. History relates that the Zust fell into the hands of a Yukon gold mine owner named "Buck" Rogers, who transported the pieces to the city of Vancouver and later turned them over to the Blackstaffs of Vancouver Island. During the merry month of May 2008 this tough but humble antique will attempt to follow its original round-the-world path. I journeyed north to take photos, though as always the crowds got in the way. They had every right to be there, photo-ops notwithstanding. Check this story from The NY Times.