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At any speed over 10 mph, the heavily rutted washboard
track through the southern Mongolian desert threatens to
tear the body and frame of our car apart. We are already
traveling with a broken right rear leaf spring, a cracked radiator
and a fractured engine mount that has been chained
together to keep the engine from sitting directly on the front
cross member. We are down to one-wheel steering, as our
bodged-together tie-rod end has failed for the fifth or sixth
time. We are just 10 days into the 35-day Peking to Paris
rally but at least our 1929 Chrysler Model 75 Roadster is
still moving. We pass other competitors stranded in the
desert awaiting the arrival of a truck large enough to remove
their stricken cars from the 115-degree inferno. Some will
wait more than 40 hours for help to arrive.
How Did We Get Here?
In the early years of the 20th century, when cars were
still new, nobody was quite sure what they could do. Speeds
in excess of 100 mph had already been attained, but travel
more than 50 miles from home was a risky proposition. So
when the French newspaper Le Matin proposed for 1907 a
race across two continents—from Peking in China to Paris
in France—at first blush it appeared to be an impossible
task. Still, on the June 10, 1907, five cars left Peking, heading
for Paris. The favorite was Italian Prince Scipione
Borghese, accompanied by his mechanic Ettore Guizzardi
and an Italian journalist named Luigi Barzini.
On August 10th, after traveling more than 8,000 miles
across China, Mongolia, Siberia, Russia and Europe, their 40-horsepower Itala rolled into Paris, winners of this
extraordinary race. Barzini’s book “Peking to Paris” became
an international bestseller and was published in more than a
dozen languages. Four of the five cars that left Peking, eventually
made it to the finish in Paris, the last arriving weeks
after Borghese’s Itala.
In 1997, the Classic Rally Association (CRA) in England
recreated the original Peking to Paris race with a Motoring
Challenge for classic cars built before 1968. This route went
across the Himalayas and through Afghanistan and Iran. It
was a huge success and prompted the CRA to announce a
100th anniversary version of the original race, this time following
more closely the original 1907 route through
Mongolia and Siberia.
100 Years Later
To most people, old cars are quaint relics from the
past, suitable for weekend drives to the local car show.
The idea that a 60-, 70- or 80-year-old car could be driven
day after day, for more than a month, crossing steep mountain
passes, across trackless deserts and through rivers might
seem insane.
The start of the 2007 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge
saw 129 competitors ready to leave Beijing with the goal of
reaching Paris. The variety of vehicles was staggering. There
were 17 cars in the Pioneer Category for cars built before
1921. The oldest car was a 1903 Mercedes 60HP, entered by
Tim Scott and John Taylor from England. There were two
1907 Itala 40HP models, similar in every way to Borghese’s winning machine. The pre-1941 Vintageant category saw
76 entries, including a phalanx of Bentley models, several
Chryslers Buicks and three formidable Chevrolet Fangio
Coupes. The smallest car in this group was a tiny 1934
Singer Le Mans sports car with a tiny 900cc engine entered
by Wilhelmus Van Gemert and John De Swart, both from
Holland. The classic category had 36 cars built before 1968
competing and included everything from an Alfa Romeo
and several Citroëns to Bentleys, Mercedes-Benzes and
Volvos. The official start took place at the Great Wall of
China amid colorful swirling paper dragons and a corps
of children drummers.
On the Road
Driving through China and to the edges of the Gobi
desert was easy. The rally started gently and a stop at the
famous Hanging Monastery at Hunyuan reminded us that
away from Beijing, tourism is just getting started in China.
Roads varied from busy truck-choked main highways to
delightfully empty two-lane asphalt roads that felt more like
Italy than Asia. All of this was to change as soon as the rally
crossed the border into Mongolia.
On the first timed Special Test, more than 30 cars failed
to reach the campsite at the end of the day. Some had difficulty
with the GPS navigation, needed to determine which
of the hundreds of tracks across the desert was the right one
to keep on course. Others had mechanical breakdowns as
the sand and rocks provided the first real test of suspension
systems and ground clearance. To make matters worse, a
huge sandstorm blew in, reducing visibility to less than ten
feet; eventually one group of competitors decided to camp
together out on the course rather than risk trying to make it
into the official campsite. Fortunately, this brief trip into the
desert was followed by a day’s drive to Ulaan Bataar, the
capital of Mongolia and its only major city where a rest day
allowed teams to repair their ravaged cars.
For more on this article and much more grab a copy of Auto Aficionado Magazine on newsstands nationwide!
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