Just when you think that you have seen everything new under the automotive sun, something out-of-the-ordinary like this French competition comes to light. It was called the Concours de Pare-Boues and it was held at Versailles, France which is located ten-miles west of the center of Paris. It appears to have been a serious competition with hundreds of cars entered.

It was a test of various different fender designs including the wild set seen at the top of the post, but the great majority of the devices used were meant to keep mud and water from splashing sideways and up and outward from the tire. It was highly organized with many panels, each with graphs painted on them and manned with attendants.

It appears that a car would drive through the course containing different types and sizes of road defects; the splash at each area would then leave its mark on the panel to each side. We would assume judges then recorded the results and the car that splashed the smallest amount of mud and water overall would be the winner.

The attentants at each panel appear to be equipped with a bucket of water and a brush, presumedly for cleaning off the panels after the results for each car were recorded. Four types of anti-splash devices seem to be the most commonly used: metal guards, brushes, chains and round metal, leather and rubber discs mounted to the outside of a tire.

If you have any knowledge of this competition, please let us know. The French press photos are dated as having been taken between the years of 1912 and 1920 indicating that this may have been an ongoing event. We learned of the photos via Jalopnik that are courtesy of the French National Museum.