Peking-to-Paris Rally



The Peking to Paris motor race was a race held in 1907 for automobiles between Peking (now Beijing), China and Paris, France, a distance of nearly 10,000 miles.

The idea for the race came from a challenge published in the Paris newspaper Le Matin on 31 January 1907, that


 * "What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"

There were forty entrants in the race, but only five teams ended up going ahead with shipping the cars to Peking. The race was held despite the race committee cancelling the race.

There were no rules in the race, except that the first car to Paris would win the prize of a magnum of Mumm champagne. The race went without any assistance through country where there were no roads or road-maps. For the race, camels carrying fuel left Peking and set up at stations along the route to give fuel to the racers. The race followed a telegraph route so that the race was well covered in newspapers at the time. Each car had one journalist as a passenger, with the journalists sending stories from the telegraph stations regularly through the race.

It was held during a time when cars were fairly new, and went through remote areas of Asia where people were not familiar with motor travel. The route between Peking and Lake Baikal had only previously been attempted on horseback. The race was won by Italian Prince Scipione Borghese of the Borghese family, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr.. He was confident and had even taken a detour from Moscow to St Petersburg for a dinner which was held for the team, and afterwards headed back to Moscow and rejoined the race. The event was not intended to be a race or competition, but quickly became one due to its pioneering nature and the technical superiority of the Italians' car, a 7433 cc 35/45hp model Itala.

Second in the race was Charles Goddard in the Spyker, who had no money and had to ask others for petrol, and borrowed his car for the race. He was arrested for fraud near the end of the race. Some of the other cars had difficulties in going up ravines, across mud, quicksand and bridges across rivers not designed for vehicles. The Contal cycle car bogged down in the Gobi desert and was not recovered, with the crew lucky to be found alive by locals. Barzini published the book Peking to Paris in 1908, filled with hundreds of pictures.

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Re-enactments
Several races have been held to re-enact the event, including the Great Auto Race of 1908 which raced from New York west to Paris (by sea for part of the way). During most of the twentieth century other re-enactments could not be held because of the establishment of the USSR after the 1917 Russian Revolution until glasnost in the early 1990s racers were again allowed on this race.

In 1990 the London To Peking Motor Challenge was held, which raced in the opposite direction as the original race, from London to Beijing. In 1997 there was the "The Second Peking to Paris Motor Challenge" made from 94 vintage cars which went a more southern route through Tibet, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece and Italy, which was won by British Phil Surtees and John Bayliss driving a 1942 Willys Jeep. Rosie Thomas, a British novelist, took part in this and funded her team's car by writing a fascinating book detailing her gruelling but exhilarating rally experience ('Border Crossing', isbn 1860498116 ).

On April 18, 2005 a 1973 Fiat 500 linked Bari, Italy, to Beijing in a 16,000 km journey across the whole Russia and passing through Vladivostok. The route was partially similar to the original one. Driven for 100 days by Danilo Elia and Fabrizio Bonserio, the old and tiny car was followed along its journey by newspapers and television from all over the world. After the long journey Elia wrote a book entitled La bizzarra impresa (ISBN 88-7480-088-6), in Italian, also available in German by the National Geographic Deutschland (Echt Abgefahren, ISBN 978-3-89405-834-0).

On May 15, 2005 five cars led by Lang Kidby departed Beijing for Paris retracing the original route with very similar cars to the originals; a Spyker, a 1907 and a 1912 De Dion-Bouton, a 1907 Itala and a Contal Cycle-car replica. This journey was televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a four-part documentary series entitled Peking to Paris. The show was hosted by Warren Brown, one of two drivers on the Itala and a cartoonist with Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The Australian crew (driving westward) ran across the Italian Fiat 500 (driving eastward) in a non-planned meeting, somewhere around Krasnojarsk, Russia.

A race to celebrate the centennial event is planned in 2007, called "The Peking To Paris Motor Challenge 2007" by Endurance Rally Association. The 130+ Antique & Classic cars will run along a similar route.

Another team is retracing the exact route in a geninue 1907 Mors Racing Car, this team will depart in June 2007 from Peking and hope to cover the 8000 mile route within 5 weeks. Their website can be viewed at www.pekingparisraid.co.uk

Also in 2007 there is a non-commercial "disorganised" expedition, "Beijing to Paris carfree", celebrating carfree mobility in the twenty-first century. Most of the participants are riding bicycles, or using a combination of cycling and rail, posting their day to day updates on the web, noteably this one from Heather Burge

Trivia

 * A documentary film is planned to chronicle the historic "Peking To Paris Motor Challenge" (Peking 2 Paris Productions)
 * The Spyker D12 SUV introduced in 2006 is named the "Peking-to-Paris" after the race.

Photos and videos

 * QTVR fullscreen panoramas Peking to Paris 2007 in Tallinn (June 21, 2007)