The Thomas Flyer

The photographs on this page, brought to life.

In the Thomas car on the New York to Paris race, 1908. The negative says so. Bain News Service. Library of Congress.

In February 1908 six cars left Times Square to drive around the world. Three of them finished, and the one that won was built in Buffalo. The E. R. Thomas Motor Company's Flyer covered roughly twenty-two thousand miles in a hundred and sixty-nine days. On the way it became the first automobile to cross the United States in winter, in forty-one days, eight hours and fifteen minutes, with George Schuster at the wheel. The German Protos reached Paris four days ahead of it, but the Protos had taken shortcuts and been penalised, so the Americans were declared winners despite arriving second. They nearly did not get into the city at all. A policeman stopped the car at the edge of Paris because its headlamp was broken. A passer-by handed over a bicycle lamp, the crew strapped it to the front of the Flyer, and they were waved through. The company did not last. It was in receivership by 1912 and stopped building cars around 1919. The car did last: it survives, restored, in a museum in Reno. Buffalo built the car that won the only round-the-world motor race ever held. If your family worked at Thomas, or you know where one of these cars ended up, add it below. Compiled by MyHistoryStone from published reference sources, August 2026. Corrections welcome.