The World's 10 Longest Auto Races (2024)

Total Distance: 18,000 miles

Last month, 48 teams packed in street-legal cars from old Datsuns to new Jeep Wranglers left London for a 29-day, 8600-mile time-trial rally to Cape Town. The London to Cape Town World Cup Rally is one of a series of nonprofessional long-distance endurance rallies that has included 19 events since 1997. The longest of these was the 2000 Around the World in 80 Days rally: The race covered 18,000 miles, had 42 entries, and required nearly three months to drive. The cars were airlifted only twice, from Beijing to Alaska and then from New York to Marrakesh.

Total Distance: 17,500 miles

In 1968, the London Daily Express and Daily Telegraph newspapers sponsored a marathon rally of 7000 miles from London to Sydney. The insane race stirred up some heroic stories of resourcefulness for the papers, and it spawned a series of intercontinental rallies. One of these was a rally from London to Mexico called the World Cup Rally, which coincided with the soccer championship in Mexico City that year. Another was the 1974 London-Sahara-Munich rally. But the ultimate race in this series was the second running of London to Sydney, which covered 17,500 miles. Rally driver Andrew Cowan won the marathon race in a Mercedes 280E. Vintage re-creations of the 1977 rally have been held on several occasions since.

Total Distance: 9317 miles

In 1907, the French newspaper Le Matin issued a challenge: "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"

Italian prince Scipione Borghese answered. He drove his Itala 7.0-liter car in competition with four other cars. The prince's chauffeur, Ettore Guizzardi, actually did most of the driving. But the prince wrote a book that inspired more motorists to attempt similar endurance drives.

Politics got in the way of these epic journeys of a long time: Following the Russian Revolution, no races were organized until the 1992 Paris-Moscow-Beijing FIA rally, which covered slightly more than 10,000 miles in 28 days. Revival events with vintage cars were held in 1997, 2007, and 2010.

Total Distance: 7500 miles

After motorcycling through the Sahara Desert the year before, Thierry Sabine organized the inaugural month-long Paris-Dakar rally, which began on December 26, 1978. In 1982, the event gained infamy as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark was lost in the desert for four days.

In 1992 the route was changed to span the entire length of Africa. In 2007, however, the event was moved to South America due to threats from African terrorist groups.

Total Distance: 4120 miles

This seven-day cross-Canada rally was held eight times, beginnning in 1961, as a special stage rally connected by transit sections on public roads. Longtime competitor Scott Harvey finally won the final event in 1968 before the rally became a simpler time-and-distance event. The final year also featured famous Mini rally driver Paddy Hopkirk, and the course was changed from its previous Montreal to Vancouver route to Calgary to Halifax. English champion Roger Clark competed in 1967, when 93 cars started the rally but only 43 finished.

Total Distance: 3360 miles

The day-long endurance race in France has been the premier sports prototype battleground since 1923. Drivers continuously circulate the 8.5-mile track, and the team that goes the farthest distance in 24 hours wins.

In 2010, an Audi R15 driven by Romain Dumas/Mike Rockenfeller/Timo Bernhard traveled 3360 miles, the longest ever, and averaged an astonishing 140 mph. While the race is billed as an endurance event, car reliability has improved to a point where it's now a 24-hour sprint race—but one that covers more than six times the mileage of the Indianapolis 500.

Total Distance: 3180 miles

The Safari Rally is an Easter motorsports fixture in Kenya. It began in 1953 to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, became part of the World Rally Championship in 1973, and remained the longest of world rallies until 2002, when it was dropped from the FIA schedule. The Safari Rally has been known for having the longest flat-out top speed special stages, and from 1996 to 2002 it had an unprecedented 600 miles of competition routes.

The stifling heat and high altitude make this a serious endurance race. Also, the route book warns competitors not to leave their cars lest they be eaten by lions.

Total Distance: 2666 miles

Like Le Mans, the Daytona race win goes to the drivers who travel the farthest in 24 hours. While the race is still run, the record for the longest distance was set back in 1982. John Paul and his son, John Paul, Jr., teamed with German driver Rolf Stommelen and drove a highly modified Porsche 935 to set the distance record.

Total Distance: 2096 miles

The Mexican government organized these cross-Mexico races to call attention to the recently completed Pan-American highway across the country. The race crossed 10,000-foot elevations, and the first winner was Hershel McGriff, in an Oldsmobile 88, at an average speed of 88 mph.

Ferrari entered race teams the following year, and for the next three years factory racing European sports cars piloted by famous racers such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, and John Fitch shared the road in different classes with large American V-8 sedans from Lincoln, Cadillac, Hudson, Dodge, and Oldsmobile. The race was canceled in 1955 due to safety concerns following a fatal disaster at the French LeMans circuit that year.

Total Distance: 1000 miles

The name in Italian translates to "Thousand Miles," and this race that gained notoriety for fielding budding racing teams from Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari and others. Twelve different closed, full-speed routes from Rome to Brescia and back twisted through the Italian countryside 24 times from 1927 to 1957, when the event became a time-distance event held at legal speeds. In 1931, German grand prix driver Rudy Caracciola won the race in a Mercedes SSKL at a record average of 63 mph, and in 1955 Stirling Moss won the race in a Mercedes 300 SLR at an average speed of 97 mph, a record that was never broken.