The 1894 Paris–Rouen contest had awarded its main prize to Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot on the basis of practicality rather than outright speed, disqualifying the fastest finisher (de Dion's steam vehicle) because it required a stoker. The resulting controversy about how a motor race should be decided led the Automobile Club de France (ACF) to move toward a simpler system: the first vehicle to complete the route would win.
The event is sometimes referred to retrospectively as the I Grand Prix de l'A.C.F., a designation that originated in a political move by French media in the early 1920s, when many pre-1906 races held in France were rebranded as Grands Prix de l'Automobile Club de France. The ACF itself adopted this numbering in 1933, though some members dismissed it as "a childish desire to establish their Grand Prix as the oldest race in the world."
The route covered 1,178 kilometres from Paris to Bordeaux and back. Émile Levassor, driving a 1,205 cc Panhard et Levassor, started carefully and observed his opponents before taking the lead. He overtook the then-leading Marquis de Dion, whose steam car had stopped to take on water, and held first position from that point on.
Levassor reached Bordeaux several hours before any other driver was expected to arrive, which created an unexpected problem: the driver designated to relieve him was still asleep in a hotel, and no one knew which one. Levassor accepted the situation calmly. He woke the organisers, proved his arrival time, had sandwiches and champagne, took a brief walk, and set off back toward Paris at 2:30 am. When Baron René de Knyff encountered him en route, he was so astonished by Levassor's pace that he nearly crashed.
After spending two days and nights behind the wheel, Levassor reached Paris with a total time of 48 hours and 48 minutes at an average speed of 24.5 km/h. He finished nearly six hours ahead of the runner-up, Louis Rigoulot. Third was Paul Koechlin in a Peugeot, eleven hours slower than Levassor. Levassor's famous remark after the race: "Some 50 km before Paris I had a rather luxurious snack in a restaurant which helped me. But I feel a little tired."
The official race regulations had been drawn up for four-seater cars. Levassor and runner-up Rigoulot were both driving two-seater cars and were therefore ruled ineligible for first prize under the regulations. The official winner was declared to be Paul Koechlin (Peugeot), who had finished third overall in a four-seat car, eleven hours behind Levassor.
The ensuing public outcry over this outcome had direct consequences for how future races were structured. The ACF organised their next major event, the 1896 Paris–Marseille–Paris, with explicit rules ensuring that the fastest finisher across the finish line — regardless of the number of seats — would be declared the winner.
The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris race demonstrated that automobiles were capable of sustained high-speed travel over enormous distances on ordinary public roads, and that drivers could endure the physical demands of marathon racing. Levassor's feat — particularly his decision to drive the full distance without a relief driver when the situation required it — became one of the defining stories of early motoring heroism.
The race also accelerated public enthusiasm for the automobile as a practical vehicle, not merely a curiosity. It proved, as the 1894 Paris–Rouen had hinted, that petrol-powered cars were commercially viable and technically superior to steam alternatives for long-distance travel. The controversy over the four-seat rule reshaped race regulations and established the principle that competitive motor racing should reward speed above all else.