Grégoire et Cie of Poissy, Seine-et-Oise, was founded in 1904
and within a few years Grégoire cars had taken part in events
such as the Circuit des Ardennes, the Tour de France and the Coupe
des Voiturettes. The 1912 Rallye de Sainte-Sébastien, however,
was not a speed but a regularity event and was decided on a complicated
points formula. The overall winner of the Rallye, too, was far
from being a competition car. It was a motor caravan, of sorts,
and took part in the event driven by its owner-driver, M.Picard,
and with a complement of ten passengers.
A French magazine of the period, ‘Omnia’, carried a series of
reports of the Rallye and their correspondent chose to go into
some detail about the Picard entry on its Grégoire chassis and
named by its owner ‘Ménagerie Grégoire’. It was, he wrote, a light-hearted
contrast to the elegant limousines with their fashionably dressed
crews taking part in the event. Built in imitation of a gipsy
caravan, it was hung about with brooms and shovels, pots and pans,
and with a canvas sheet tied over the jumble on its roof, from
which a stove-pipe protruded. With all its occupants dressed up
in gipsy costumes it resembled the sort of outfit one might find
on a fairground.
Omnia’s man headed one of his reports ‘Le Rallye Automobile de
Saint-Sébastien’ and, tongue in cheek, added the subtitle ‘Un
grande favorite pour le concours d’élégance - La Roulette Grégoire’.
Well, M.Picard’s ugly duckling entry failed to appear on the concours
prize list nor, unsurprisingly, did it compete in the 3km hilly
time-trial from the then much-favoured by fashionable society
bathing resort on Spain’s north coast. However, entrants and spectators
alike were amazed when ‘Ménagerie Grégoire’ proved to be a clear
overall points winner in the main rally. With 144.9 it was streets
ahead of the second-place vehicle, a Hispano-Suiza with 116.64.
So how did a heavyweight motor caravan with a crew one short of
a dozen triumph over a prestigious Hispano-Suiza? The Rallye,
like today’s ‘Monte’, started from a number of major European
cities with the competitors converging by a number of different
routes on Saint-Sébastien. Points were awarded as follows: 4 per
100km driven, 1 per 100kg of kerbweight and 5 per passenger carried.
Closed cars with two seats were given 4 points, four seaters 8
points and, by extrapolation, we can assume that for 11 seats
there were 22 points.
Deductions were 10 points per litre of engine capacity (the Grégoire
may have been the 16HP of 3052cc or at most a 20HP of 3617cc)
and 2 per km between controls if average speed was less than 30km/hr.
‘Ménagerie’, starting from Posen (Poznan) in Poland and travelling
via Berlin, Strasbourg and Bordeaux covered a total of 2,355km.
The points formula could scarcely have been better devised as
far as the Grégoire caravan was concerned! The win netted M.Picard
the tidy sum of 10,000 francs from the total prize money for the
event of 70,000 francs.
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