Peking to Paris: The Ultimate Driving Adventure

by Philip Young

The official record of the centenial re-enactment of a great motoring milestone: the 1907 Peking to Paris race. Man and machine against the elements, driving where no car has gone before; That was the impossible challenge of 1907 when a handful of buccaneering madcap motorists took up the idea of a Paris newspaper to prove that the car could now go anywhere by driving the huge distance between two capital cities - from Peking to Paris. To mark the 100th anniversary of the original "Great Race", over 100 cars set out to drive the original route used by Prince Borghese in 1907: they ranged from authentic veteran Italas, to vintage Bentleys, to classic Aston Martins and pretty much everything in between.

Drivers of 26 different nationalities came together to pit their wits and their cars by driving 40 days from the Great Wall of China, across the Gobi Desert. After the Gobi Desert came ten days of wilderness crossing Mongolias vast plains to Russia, then on to Moscows Red Square and St. Petersburg, to Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Germany. The survivors finally rolling into Paris for an amazing party. Even though 100 years have passed from the original ground breaking event, todays rally enthusiasts discovered that in Mongolia, conditions of poor fuel, problems of food, water and finding their way to distant horizons remained a challenge exactly as faced by the original pioneers.

This then is the inside story of the great driving efforts and human endeavor required to complete an amazingly challenging route. With 250 photos, official maps and inside information, this is a fascinating read for any motor enthusisast. The book also briefly describes the original event, including previously unpublished photographs.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2007

About the author

Philip Young is the founder of the Historic Rally Car Register, the Endurance Rally Association, organiser of the London to Cape Town World Cup Rally and other long distance events. In the early 1980’s Philip Young was editing, writing for, and publishing his own motoring magazine, “Sporting Cars”. that twice won the premier award for journalism from the Guild of Motoring Writers. n addition to organising events Philip is a past-competitor on many long-distance events, including the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon, Paris Dakar, and five Himalayan Rallies.