From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
La Jamais Contente: Between 1898 and 1899 there occurred an extraordinary competition between two exponents of the electric vehicle. The participants in this contest were the wealthy Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat and a Belgian manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles, one Camille Jenatzy.
The contest was initially the idea of the journal La France Automobile, and had no precedent. It was to take the form of a hill-climb up the 1,800 metres of the Chanteloup Hill. Jenatzy noted the short distance involved and realised that it would be perfect for demonstrating the abilities of his electric vehicles. Sure enough, Jenatzy entered one of his own electric cars and duly won conclusively in an event blighted by heavy rain. In winning, his speed was all of 16 mph, easily outpacing a twin-engined Léon Bollée tri-car, widely regarded as the fastest car of the period.
Buoyed by the success of the event, La France Automobile organised a second event. At the time there was much discussion as to whether a car or cyclist was faster, so a record attempt was set up pitting the famous cyclist Albert Champion against a variety of motor cars. A suitable course was found which allowed a perfectly straight two kilometre course to be laid out - it was actually the central avenue of the Parc Agricole d'Achéres, a new sewage farm near Paris! The near perfect surface gave rise to a new idea: the event would be run over the full two kilometres, starting with a standing start and with the second kilometre being timed as a flying kilometre.
For Jenatzy the day was a fiasco and for some reason not recorded he failed to start. The event was won by Count Chasseloup-Laubat driving a car produced by Jenatzy's great electric rival, Jeantaud. The cyclist, incidentally, was beaten by 9 seconds. The event attracted huge interest and a return match was arranged between Chasseloup-Laubat and Jenatzy to take place at the same venue in January 1899. This time Jenatzy recorded a speed of 41.4 mph, but was beaten by Chasseloup-Laubat's speed of 43.7 mph. Another return match was held 10 days later. Jenatzy ran first and became the first driver to exceed a speed of 50 mph over the flying kilometre. Chasseloup-Laubat had problems and did not run until March 4th, when he stunned all present by recording a speed of 57.6 mph.
Jenatzy now determined to settle the matter once and for all. He designed and built a new car, the first ever designed with the express purpose of outright speed. The new car, which he called La Jamais Contente (Never Satisfied), was cigar-shaped and made from partinium, a primitive form of aluminum-alloy. Jenatzy placed the electric motor directly on the driving axle to eliminate friction losses in the transmission, which resulted in its unusually small wheels.
On April 29th 1899, after a chaotic failed attempt on April 1st, he raised the record out of Chasseloup-Laubat's reach by recording a speed of 65.8 mph (105 km/h), thus becoming the first to exceed 100 km/h. A few days later Chasseloup-Laubat withdrew from the contest.
The record brought widespread fame to Jenatzy, but he soon tired of the limitations of electric motors and turned his attention to petrol cars. He drove a Mors in the three biggest races of 1899, once again exciting the imagination of the public by his great drive through the night in the Tour de France in an effort to make up lost time.
He drove a Bolide in the 1900 Gordon Bennett Race and then retired from the sport, before returning in 1902, thereafter always driving Mercedes cars.