Argonne

An 88.80 km circuit which hosted the Eliminatoires Francaises de la Coupe Internationale, the French Eliminations for the Gordon Bennett Cup, on the 20th May 1904. The Automobile Club de France selected this circuit in the Ardennes in Belgium because it most closely resembled the German venue of Taunus which was to be used that year. The top map shows the first circuit to be proposed, but the ACF decided that this course was too long and too slow, and had too many isolation points where the cars had to go through narrow streets in towns. Hence the northern part was cut, and the second circuit arrived at.