Early racing is a tough area... Sorry it not a Panhard & Levassor, no (De Dietrich) Turcat Mery, no De Dietrich-Bugatti... Despite the very clear hints we gave there is no winner this week. However jurymember Ariejan Bos is very correct spot with his answer:
"The racer is a 1901 Rochet & Schneider. R&S had presented a new 4 cylinder car at the Paris Salon of January 1901 and competed with three cars in the 'Semaine de Nice' end of March. This event of course was 'overshadowed' by the new Mercedes, but the Rochet & Schneider also performed quite well. The R&S cars finished on 4th, 6th and 13th place in the race Nice-Salon-Nice. The last event of this week was the Nice-La Turbie hill climb. Looking at the environment the photograph could well be taken during a training session for this event."
Our longtime friend who came up with the photo adds:
Jurymember Ariejan who came up with the correct identification of the make as a Rochet-Schneider is spot on, when he suggests that the location could be the Nice-La Turbie hill-climb course in 1901. There are very few illustrations of the Rochet-Schneiders that took part in the 1901 'Nice Week', and those that there are in the sporting journal 'La Vie au Grand Air' and in 'La France Automobile' are poorly reproduced. However, they provide just enough information to confirm the location. So: 1901 Rochet-Schneider, Nice-La Turbie, presumably on a practise run because of the lamps (they were taken of when the cars raced); but which of 3 cars is not sure.