Rubber soul

Maybe when you win a 22,000-mile race, you’re entitled to a 100-year victory lap.

That seems to be the case, at least, with the Thomas Flyer, the battle-scarred early automobile that prevailed in the first intercontinental car race in 1908. That race ran from New York to Paris. But Reno -- through which the Flyer almost passed on its journey 99 years ago -- is the scene of its celebration now.

From Nov. 8 until Jan. 5, 2009, that city’s National Automobile Museum will have the Thomas Flyer on display as part of an exhibition focusing on the race.

The contest began with six cars from four countries: France, Germany, Italy and the U.S., and its logistics raise more than a few questions. For instance: Why start in the middle of winter?

“Originally, their intention was to do the Bering Strait [between North America and Asia] and go across an ice bridge,” said Esther Isaac, the museum’s sales and marketing director. That idea proved unworkable, she added, and cars were shipped instead.

From the opening pistol shot in Times Square on Feb. 12, 1908, to the first car’s finish on July 30, the competition lasted 169 days, crossing the U.S., Japan, Siberia, Russia, Germany and France.

At the time of the race -- sponsored by two newspapers, the New York Times and Le Matin of Paris -- the U.S. was still five years from completing its first coast-to-coast highway, and antifreeze hadn’t been invented. Still, the E.R. Thomas Motor Co. of Buffalo, N.Y., builder of the Thomas Flyer, entered at the eleventh hour.

The Flyer, which had a four-cylinder, 571-cubic-inch engine and 70 horsepower, weighed about 3,780 pounds and cost $4,500 (before modifications). Outfitted with extra fuel tanks and other special measures, it passed through Nevada by way of Ely, Tonopah, Goldfield, Beatty and Rhyolite. It crossed the finish line on July 30. (A German team finished second; an Italian team, third.)

Despite its win, the Thomas Motor Co. was out of business by 1912, and over the years the team members who won the race died as well. But the car lives on.

By 1964, the Thomas Flyer had joined the collection of hotel-casino mogul William F. Harrah, who restored it to its condition at the conclusion of the global race. Some years after Harrah’s death in 1978, the Flyer landed in the 220-vehicle collection of the Reno museum. It has been displayed for years, Isaac said, but the new exhibition surrounds it with context, from the trophy it won to a series of interactive displays, photographs and oil paintings tracing the improbable race’s progress.

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The National Automobile Museum is at 10 S. Lake St., Reno; (775) 333-9300, www.auto museum.org. Adult admission is $9.