Notes:
Recognized as the winner of one of the first automobile races ever held, the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, Émile Levassor died almost two years later as a consequence of an accident which happened in another race.

A French engineer graduated at the École Centrale of Paris, Émile Levassor was a pioneer and an innovator of the automobile industry and also a talented car racing driver. He met René Panhard in the 1870s when they were employed at "Perin et Pauwels", a woodworking machinery company. Panhard became a partner in this enterprise, the name changing to "Perin et Panhard" and the range of engineering activities expanded. After the death of Perin in 1886, Émile Levassor joined René Panhard and the firm was renamed "Panhard et Levassor". The company gained engine building experience by making under licence the Otto et Langena gas engines.

In the early 1880s a Belgian lawyer and industrialist called Edouard Sarazin got a license for building the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler's engines. He chose Panhard et Levassor to build them in France and the company purchased the patent to use Daimler engines. When Sarazin died in 1887, Émile Levassor married his widow, Louise. The first Panhard et Levassor automobile was presented at the Exposition Universelle of Paris in 1889. In 1891 Émile Levassor created the "systeme Panhard", placing a v-twin engine at the front of the chassis, driving through a clutch to a set of sliding gears with final drive to the back axle by chain. The system was successful being copied by other makers, it formed the pattern for motorcars for many decades ahead.

Émile Levassor also took part in auto racing, driving Panhard et Levassor cars. He finished 5th in the 1894 Paris-Rouen race which was won by Marquis de Dion in a De Dion-Bouton, and won the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race held over two days of continuous driving, at an average speed of about 24 km/h.

Émile Levassor passed away on 14 April 1897, perhaps as a result of an accident in the Paris-Marseille-Paris, a 1710 kms race held from 24 September to 03 October 1896. He had won the 2nd stage Auxerre-Dijon and the 3rd stage Dijon-Lyon, moving into the lead of the race. But during the following 4th stage Lyon-Avignon, while going at high speed down a hill at some 30 kms from the town of Orange, Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur, his car overturned when he tried to avoid hitting a dog. He and his riding mechanic d'Hostingue were both thrown out, Levassor suffering a smashed rib and serious internal injuries when he hit the steering tiller. He managed to drive on to Avignon but there he was forced to abandon the race because of the pain. In the following days he remained ill but refused to stop working at the company. He never recovered from the injuries and about seven months later he sustained a coronary embolism while at his drawing board, being killed immediately, aged 54.

A monument to Levassor and his historic achievement was unveiled during the Paris automobile show in December 1907. The location was at the Port Maillot, in what was then the heart of the automobile district of Paris, near the site where Levassor finished the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race twelve years earlier.

It was the first monument to honor a man for his automobile achievements. It was unveiled by Baron de Zuyler, the president of the Automobile Club of France.

• Newspaper The New York Times (New York City, NY, United States), issue of Sunday, 08 December 1907, page ?, article "Monument to Autoist.".
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