CGA Dogcart

Following the triumph of Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat, he was challenged to a duel of sorts by Belgian Camille Jenatzy and the date for the showdown was to be January 17, 1899.

Jenatzy arrived at the "duel" with a what is listed as a CGA Dogcart (some early styles of automotive models were referred to as "dogcarts" after the horse drawn carriages of the same description). Little information is available on the car other than that it was powered by one 80 cell Fulmen lead acid battery and that it established a new record of 66.7 km/h (41.420 mph) with Jenatzy's run.

The battle was now all consuming for both Chasseloup-Laubat and Jenatzy, and on March 4, 1899, six weeks after Jenatzy new record, the Electric Count rolled up with a new car dubbed the "Jeantaud Duc Profilée," which included the addition of some rudimentary streamlining, and took the record back with a run of 92.7 km/h (57.6 mph).

In the wings however, Jenatzy had also been working on a new car, a torpedo shaped electric vehicle with many parts made of partinium, a strong, lightweight and expensive alloy made of aluminum, copper, zinc, silicon and iron which had not been previously used in a car.

The appropriately named Jamais Contente (Never Satisfied) was the first purpose-built speed record car and had two direct drive Postel-Vinay 25 kW motors, running at 200 V, and drawing 124 amps for approximately 68 horsepower.

La Jamais Contente finally broke through the 100 km/h (62 mph) barrier on 29 April 1899 with a speed of 105.9 km/h (65.79 mph). The new record would be broken in 1902 by Leon Serpollet's steam car with a speed of 120.80 km/h (75.06 mph), and subsequently the first internal combustion engined vehicle to take the record, the William K Vanderbilt driven Mors Z Paris-Vienne, which recorded 120.83 km/h (76.08 mph), also in 1902.