Vanderbilt Cup Races

I believe that’s the P46 Renault stock car with Lewis Strang driving and Leo Anderson as the mechanician participating in the 1908 Motor Parkway Sweepstakes on October 10, 1908. The location is probably somewhere between Bethpage and Woodbury but I’m going to guess on Jericho Turnpike, slightly west of the Woodbury turn. Reasoning: the Woodbury turn was a popular viewing spot and the photographer felt crowded so he moved west to what could be the intersection with South Woods Road (notice the telephone pole, indicating a side road).

The car: #P46 Renault, driven by Lewis Strang. The race: The 1908 Long Island Motor Parkway Sweepstakes, which opened the parkway. The Renault finished second.

The location of the Foto: I’m guessing somewhere on Jericho Turnpike, because of the trees. (Not on the parkway, which was in the plains.)

Source of my information: I know that Renaults have the radiator behind the engine. Knowing that, I got the rest of the information from poking around this website.

From Art Kleiner:
35/45 HP Renault driven by Lewis Strang in the 1908 Motor Parkway Sweepstakes.  Finished second.

That is P46, the Renault driven by Lewis Strang in the Motor Parkway Sweepstakes on the LIMP on 14 Oct 1908. It looks similar to other photos taken at about where the course entered the Jericho Parkway, the “Flatiron Turn” near Woodbury.

The car appears to be the Renault of Lewis Strang in the 1908 edition of the Vanderbilt Cup.  It appears to be a hard right hand turn he’s just accomplished so my guess for location is Colyer’s Corner…...wondering if this was not one of the 10 Willie K Renaults he had imported…...looks very similar.

Jan Hyde

Mystery photo # 26 early Renault racer.
Traded hands for about $ 2mm at Bonhams Amelia Is. sold by Rob Kauffman.

Clueless as usual but almost certain it’s a big Renault.  Sam, II

Judging from radiator location,I’m guessing car is a Renault GP car from 1907-08.The driver would be Louis Strang.The race location could be either 1908 Vanderbilt cup or American Grand Prize at Savannah.There were two Renaults entered at Savannah,in which case the driver was either Louis Strang or Ferenc Szisz.

It’s a Renault, possibly 1908 Vanderbilt Cup Race, driven by Lewis Strang/Mechanician Anderson. Location is near impossible to solve - hats off to who recognizes the house!

The easier part was identifying the car, but spent the weekend trying to unsuccessfully discover the location.

#P46 Renault driven by Lewis Strang on September 10, 1908 in the “The Long Island Motor Parkway Sweepstakes.”

As to where…looks like he’s on a slight left turn along the public road portion of the course. Also noticing a telephone pole, so maybe this is near one of the phone stations along the course. The surrounding terrain does not look like the western portion near Ellison, so Pure guess of somewhere near Bethpage or Plainview circled in the course map.

Mystery Foto #26… The car is certainly a Renault and possibly one of the Vanderbilt Renaults. (He ordered 10 built for him and friends). So it could be a 1907 Vanderbilt Renault 35-45 HP runabout. It could have been the 1908 Vanderbilt cup with Lewis Strang as driver.

Below is my answer. No rationale, just my best guess for location on course.

Difficult photo. I’m no expert but quite possibly the end result of a sharp left turn. You can see the center-of-gravity in the rear wheels skidding towards the driver’s right side (dust plume, or maybe exhaust?), being controlled by the front steering wheels. The rear wheels appear leaning towards the right, coming out of the left curve.

From Art Kleiner:
As per Dick Gorman’s comment above, Willie K. ordered 10 of the 35/45 hp Renaults for his friends.  Here’s a photo from “Automobile Topics” of August 24, 1907 noting this purchase and where they were intended to be used.  And thanks Dick for the information provided.

From Art Kleiner:
Two more photos of the Renault - this one won the Sept., 1907 Morris Park 24 hour race. The winning driver was M.G. Bernin and Paul Lacroix shown in the photo above as well.  From “Automobile Topics” of September 14, 1907.

The last picture is my favorite, well done guys!

Photo provided by Al Velocci, showing Strang in the Renault - note the similarity with the mystery photo and Frank’s comments (e.g., the car coming out of a turn). Can anyone be more specific in terms of where the fence is located?

Al & Art - I pointed out below where fences are located in the mystery photo. Doesn’t look to match the white sturdy fence in Al’s photo. Found a couple of photos in the archive here that match the scenery in Al’s photo. One is just about exact, the fence curves to the right. Not sure if a road is intersecting there; or maybe the fence is surrounding a Horse Track…Hitchcock? Other image looks like the same fence, but further ahead. Know the Sweepstakes & VCR in 1908 were the same routes.

Here’s views from one of the 1908 race films on the site here. Described as Jericho Tpke, one of the scenes show the fence curve, but in a panoramic view. So many spectators there to know if a road is intersected at Jericho : ) !