Peking to Paris Rally

[TonyBrooks]

I am fortunate enough to be competing on this event in this lovely 1937 Cadillac and thought you might be interested in seeing this vehicle.

We, and the 100+ other entrants, start from the Great Wall, Beijing on Sunday 2nd June and finish in Paris on Sunday 7th July after passing through China, mongolia (where we spend 7 nights in tents) Russia, Kazakhstan before we enter Europe via Finland.

A great adventure and must admit to being a little nervous, especially as I have only just had the cast removed from a broken ankle!

Full details of the event and route can be found here and where all cars (assuming technology works) can be tracked.

https://www.endurorally.com/

[irish boy]

Super trip and will be an experience of a lifetimes. Parents have done 2 with the endurance rally association, make no mistake it will be tough.

[Riley Blue]

That's going to be some experience, I really envy you; I'll be following progress with great interest.

[DaveTheRave87]

Enjoy yourself and keep us updated.

[Keep it stiff]

Good luck with it Tony, I just looked at the entry list, 120 cars and quite a mix. I would love to do something similar but it will need to be on-hold pending retirement!

I shall very much look forward to reading your updates.

[Old Merc]

Good luck,you will need it,that is an adventure of a lifetime.
A very good friend of mine won the 2007 event,he never stops talking about his experience.

[velocemitch]

Good lucky Tony, I’m sure it will be the experience of a lifetime. Hope you get on well with your driver, I expect you will need too!.

[nsa]

Petrolicious just released a good video about the P2P:

https://petrolicious.com/films/1972-datsun-240z-go...

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Good luck! that looks like a big old bus and whoever is driving is going to develope some extra muscle making that point, turn, stop and go!

[MGJ2]

Hello Tony,
Just want to wish you and James all the best and a safe trip.

[anonymous-user]

I have mate who has built a few cars for that in Asia, I understand that if you source and build a car in Asia and then sell in Europe you can go a long way to reducing the cost of this event.

[Riley Blue]

There's an amazing variety of machinery taking part. I've seen a video of the Belgian nutters on the 1907 Trike - completely bonkers the pair of them, I hope they do well. As for the rest, I'll be cheering on the Riley 2.6, naturally, but 'bon voyage' to them all.

[Riley Blue]

For those not yet following Tony, you can track the car he's in (Car 40) here: https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspot...

[Flying Phil]

This event certainly does get a variety of entrants/vehicles, I became involved with the refurbishment of this car a few years ago.....fascinating!

[irish boy]

Parents car that they did it in, its a 1927 model. They mostly prepped it themselves.

[Leithen]

PH search fail - I posted on https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... about a friend who is also on this years event, not having seen/found this thread.

Ashton & Giles are attempting to complete it in a 1954 Austin-Healey 100/4.

Online tracking is here with updates hopefully on their facebook page.

[caziques]

In 1998 I drove the London to Cape Town in a car which had previously done the Peking - Paris.

Apart from hitting a rock wall in Syria and a couple of halfshafts breaking, the biggest issue was metal fatigue. Never seen anything like it all my years on Earth, bodywork cracks - (strengthened) parts of the chassis broke off.

The car had to be retired after that.

Never forget trying to change some transverse leaf spring leaves a few hours after finishing driving one day. The spring was still too hot to touch.

[TonyBrooks]

Well we survived but it was a close thing.

Unbelievable adventure, very hard on the cars but the people we met both the locals and our fellow competitors were fantastic.

Highlight for me were the nights under canvas in the Gobi desert, wonderful views and such a laugh.

Car was broken by the end - had to drop sump on night one and redo main bearing cap seal - this reduced oil loss from 3L per 50 miles (!!) to 3L per day which was manageable. Great overheating issues solved by a process of elimination over several weeks, broken gear lever, bent suspension (solved by a mongolian fitter who heated up unit with 2 sticks of an electric welder and a huge hammer, broken suspension dampers, failed wheel bearing - which we replaced in 40 minutes, fenders falling off. Car needed constant attention but we got there and finished 9th o/a and 5th in class - but for a car accident (not involving us) we could have come 5 or 6 th.

Made friends for life - would I do it again - if you asked me 3 weeks into the event, the answer would have been a definite NO nut now, yes absolutely!

[Flying Phil]

Well Done!
I (and am sure others) look forward to reading more details soon.

[velocemitch]

Well done Tony, its funny how events work like that, during it and just after you are in 'never again' mode after a couple of weeks you are checking the dates for next year!.
I expect its the same but magnified a 100 fold on P to P.