Jenatzy ‘La Jamais Contente’ 1899

Description

La Jamais Contente (The Never Contented) was the first road vehicle to exceed one hundred kilometres per hour (62 mph) on 29 April 1899 at Achères, near Paris. A light-alloy, torpedo-shaped vehicle powered by batteries, it had two Postel-Vinay 25 kW motors each driving the rear axle via a chain, running at 200 V and drawing 124 A, for about 68 hp total. It had Michelin tires. Driven by Camille Jenatzy, a Belgian, who carved a space in the promising Parisian electric carriage market, Jenatzy started a manufacturing plant, and produced many electric vehicles. Competing fiercely against carriage-maker Charles Jeantaud to see who made the fastest vehicles. To ensure success, Jenatzy built a bullet-shaped prototype in partinium (an alloy of laminated aluminium, tungsten and magnesium).
Known for his record-breaking speed runs and nicknamed “Le Diable Rouge” for his red beard, he won the 1903 Gordon Bennet Cup race in Athy, Ireland, driving a Mercedes. He died in 1913 in a hunting accident. Hiding behind a bush he made animal noises as a prank; his hunting friends heard and shot him and rushed him to hospital.  He died en route fulfilling his own prophesy he would die in a Mercedes. Within a few years of his record the gasoline-fuelled combustion engine would increasingly supplant electric technology.
After this exploit the gasoline-fuelled combustion engine would increasingly supplant electric technology.
The Jamais Contente is now on display at the automobile museum in Compiègne, France.