Winner: Jenatzy in a 60 hp Mercedes. Average speed 89.2 km/h.
In July 1903 in the Coupe Internationale race, commonly known as the Gordon Bennett race, became a spectacular triumph for Mercedes. The most prestigious event of the still young automobile sport scene at the time, which had been established by James Gordon Bennett Jr., an American newspaper publisher, sportsman and automobile enthusiast living in Europe, was held in Ireland in 1903 after the previous year's victory by the British driver Selwyn Francis Edge and enjoyed broad international participation for the first time. The start of the 60 hp cars was only an stopgap solution, as the Mercedes-Simplex 90 hp racing cars originally intended for participation had been destroyed by a devastating fire at the Cannstatt factory in the early hours of 10 June 1903, just three weeks before the race. Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) had hurriedly requested back some of the 60 hp models that had already been delivered to customers and prepared them for the race over almost 600 kilometres.
After the good performance of the 60 hp in the Paris - Madrid race, Max von Duttenhofer, Chairman of the DMG Supervisory Board, had already argued before the fire in Cannstatt in favour of replacing one of the vehicles with a Mercedes-Simplex 60 hp instead of deploying three 90 hp cars for the Gordon Bennett race. The vehicle of US millionaire and automobile enthusiast Clarence Gray Dinsmore was intended for this purpose. However, after Dinsmore's 90 hp car had been destroyed in the fire and the millionaire did not want to have to make do without a car, it took all the persuasive power of Frankfurt banker and later DMG sales director Robert Katzenstein to motivate Dinsmore to nevertheless make his 60 hp available. In the end, this was only possible because Katzenstein provided his own 40 hp car in exchange.
The fact that the Belgian Camille Jenatzy, who was nicknamed the "red devil" because of his red beard and fast driving style, actually took victory in the Dinsmore car was a sensation in view of the difficult starting point. The other two 60 hp cars were driven by Baron Pierre de Caters and Foxhall Keene, but neither driver was anything like as successful as the "red devil". In the end, the combination of Camille Jenatzy and the Mercedes-Simplex 60 hp brought DMG and the still young Mercedes brand their first major international race victory. The success of Jenatzy, who had been entered by the Imperial Automobile Club and had contested the race for Germany, meant that the 1904 Gordon Bennett Race was held in Germany due to the regulation of th Coupe Internationale races..