The entry list for the Peking to Paris adventure-rally, which has been dubbed the first-ever trans-continental motor-marathon, has just closed. Entrants are now preparing for the start of the event, which marks the 100th anniversary of the first ever such rally. The start will take place on 27 May 2007.
The pioneers who ventured out 100 years ago had no known roads for the first 5,000 miles, so no maps, no petrol stations, and no mechanics placed at points along the way. Nobody expected them to survive the course and nobody in any authority would assist. There was nothing to help guide their navigation, other than keeping the sun on their backs as a way of ensuring they must be going north.
Once you hit the trans-Siberian railway line - and there’s the Gobi Desert to cross before finding that -- all you do is count down the telegraph poles to Moscow. Simple, really. Except it in 1907, nobody had been much further down the road than the next town.
This year sees a huge range of cars, from a pair of 1907 Itala 40s -- the first race was won by Prince Borghese in an Itala -- through to the youngest car, a 1969 Aston Martin DB6. the biggest-engined car is a 1918 La France Roadster with a humungous six-cylinder 14-litre engine upfront. The monster mill is configured with three in-line blocks of twin cylinders mounted on a common crankcase with a huge crank and engine bearings to match.
Other cars of interest include a 1934 Lagonda (see pic) being entered by The Aston Workshop, which is currently restoring the machine to its original spec -- plus some tweaks to prepare it for the ordeal ahead. "Ten days of total wilderness with no fuel or water when crossing Mongolia must be the hardest thing any old car has been asked to do", said the Lagonda's owner, entrant and driver Bob Fountain.
And from the 'I never knew that' department: Prince Borghese’s big win, Italy adopted red as its racing colour and that's why Ferrari's racing cars look as they do.
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