The inaugural edition in 1899 was organized by Le Matin under the control of the Automobile Club de France and won by René de Knyff driving a Panhard et Levassor at an average of 30 mph. Running July 16 to 24 in seven stages — Paris to Nancy, through Aix-les-Bains, Vichy, Périgueux, Nantes, Cabourg, and back to Paris — 49 cars started and 21 finished. The 1908 edition was taken by Clément-Bayard. The event then lapsed before a postwar revival in 1951.
The reconstituted Tour de France Automobile was organized by the Automobile Club de Nice from 1951 onward, incorporating demanding French hillclimbs including La Turbie near Nice into its route. Pierre Boncompagni and Barracquet won the opening postwar edition in a 2.6-litre Ferrari 212 Export. In 1954, Jacques Pollet and M. Gauthier took victory in a 2.5-litre Gordini on the traditional Nice-to-Nice route.
Scuderia Ferrari dominated the event between 1951 and 1962, claiming eight victories. Alfonso de Portago won in 1956 alongside Nelson in a Ferrari 250 2.9, with Stirling Moss and Houel second in a Mercedes 300 SL. Olivier Gendebien then won three consecutive editions from 1957 to 1959 alongside co-driver Lucien Bianchi. The 1958 event brought tragedy when British driver Peter Whitehead died in an accident near Lasalle, Gard; his half-brother Graham Whitehead was at the wheel when the car broke through a rotten bridge railing after dark while driving a Jaguar.
The 1960s transformed the event's character, with sports prototypes such as the Ferrari 512 S, Ford GT40, and Matra MS650 driving hundreds of kilometres on open public roads alongside production-based competitors. The decade was defined by Bernard Consten, a French racing and rally driver who won the event five times — a record that still stands.
In 1960, the tour visited Mont Ventoux, the Nürburgring, Spa, Montlhéry, Rouen, and Le Mans before finishing at Clermont-Ferrand. Willy Mairesse and Georges Berger won overall in a Ferrari 250 GT, with Consten and J. Renel claiming the Touring category in a Jaguar 3.8 Mk. II. Mairesse and Berger repeated their overall win in 1961. The final Ferrari outright victory came in 1964, when Lucien Bianchi and Georges Berger drove a Ferrari 250 GTO entered by Ecurie Nationale Belge. That edition started at Lille and visited Reims, Rouen, Le Mans, Clermont-Ferrand, Monza, and Pau. The Touring category was won by Peter Procter and Andrew Cowan in a Ford Mustang entered by Alan Mann Racing, while AC Shelby Cobras driven by Maurice Trintignant, Bob Bondurant, and André Simon all retired.
In the 1980s the Tour de France Automobile was incorporated into the European Rally Championship, introducing a new generation of competitors. The final running of the original event took place in 1986.
The event was resurrected in 1992 as a historic car competition organized by Patrick Peter of Agence Peter. The modern format runs over five days covering approximately 2,500 kilometres of roads combined with four or five circuit races and six to eight hillclimbs. The start is always held in Paris, with the finish rotating between southern seaside cities such as Biarritz, Cannes, and Nice. Cars are split into a competition class and a regularity class; since 1996 only pre-1966 cars are eligible to win overall, though machines up to 1974 may participate.
Notable winning cars in the competition class have included the Ford Shelby Mustang 350GT, Ford GT40, AC Cobra 289, Lotus Elan, and Ferrari Daytona Gr. IV. Drivers who have won the competition class include Jürgen Barth, Henri Pescarolo, and Walter Röhrl. Dutch driver Hans Hugenholtz claimed the competition class seven times between 1993 and 2007 — more than any other entrant in the historic era — driving a Ferrari Daytona Gr. IV, Shelby Mustang 350GT, Ford GT40, and Lotus Elan. Other notable historic-era participants have included Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, Ari Vatanen, Thierry Boutsen, Romain Dumas, Yannick Dalmas, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Emanuele Pirro, and Olivier Panis. Former winners of the original race such as Bernard Consten, Jean Ragnotti, Gérard Larousse, and JC Andruet have also competed in the revival.
The Tour de France Automobile occupies a unique place in French motorsport heritage, bridging the pioneering era of long-distance road racing and the modern classic-car revival movement. Its combination of competitive hillclimbs, circuit races, and open-road liaison stages remains a format with few peers in contemporary historic motorsport.
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