The Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, the world’s last true motoring adventure, returns for its ninth edition starting from the Great Wall of China on the 17th of May.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1135468801957102&set=pcb.1135483515288964

Coffee and donuts video for the day, skip the first 40 seconds

and the coolest piece of petroliana I've seen in a while, the daily rate card Hertz had to rent the GT 350H

Petrolicious is finally back, and they find and share the coolest stories

 Katarina Kyvalova made her racing debut in a 24-hour event in a pre-war Bentley, and decided that she'd race the Peking to Paris in a 1967 Mustang donor car.

https://petrolicious.com/articles/prodrive-hero-era-1-the-incredible-story-of-rallying-a-restmod-mustang-from-peking-to-paris

you know how in March and April, I post Happy 413 Day, and 327, 318, all the engine sizes? And it's a good thing? Well, it's 626 day, and there ain't much that's ever been interesting about a 626, except that this one was almost on the Peking to Paris rally

“When the 1982 rally event was canceled, Martin pushed it back into his dealership,” explained the owner. “It just kind of sat there for a while, then the dealership changed hands in the mid- to late-80s… I think that’s when it finally left the dealership.”

In November 1981, MotorSport reported that the event had been delayed from its initial intended start in June 1982, citing that the Soviet Union was not onboard with allowing competitors to pass through.

It’s a shame, too, because there were some guys who intended to race the last ever Checker cab while running the taxi meter the whole way. Whoever guessed the fare at the end would win a prize.

https://www.theautopian.com/this-forgotten-mazda-rally-car-belonged-to-an-automotive-legend-and-could-be-yours-for-just-9500/

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/460668129/?fbclid=IwAR12sQuqZkOYVHv3CkHMPxXAzS79BObVqpy47XwIxK7e8bAhVacaeImmaRc

a De Dion Bouton in the first Paris to Peking rally

Jorge Marques made this to celebrate the 1907 Peking to Paris race, it's in the Automobile Museum of Malaga collection, who had it in a exhibition on the Marques de Larios street

Above are several famous racecars, like the Marmon Wasp

This gentleman on the flywheel area is dedicated to Prince Scipione Borghese, winner of the Beijing-Paris of 1907

http://museoautomalaga.blogspot.com/2009/11/motor-3-exposicion-en-calle-marques-de.html

some crazy wonderful gearheads took a pair of American LaFrance speedsters to the Paris to Peking Rally

Inspired by the above 2007 entrant to the rally, the Traftons began a mission to rally from China to France with their own ginormous cars, and what they started with after looking around the USA for some American LaFrance cars:

http://www.blackhorseracing.com/building-road-rally-racing-roadster/  all of the drop down menus do NOT link to other pages, they result in downloads of some file. I'm not opening them.

They brought a 1915 and a 1925 American LaFrance speedster on the Peking to Paris Rally http://www.endurorally.com/pages/peking-to-paris-motor-challenge-2016-participants

Tim – owner of Red Car Restorations in Rockwall – and his team of auto craftsmen hand-built a 1915 and 1925 American LaFrance, which he and the owner of the vehicles, Steve Trafton of Whidbey Island, WA, will pilot for the month-long rally.

The project took two years to complete, turning what were once two fire trucks into finely-tuned Speedsters measuring nine and a half feet tall and 20 feet long, with the tires measuring at 40 inches tall and the engine displacement at 900 cubic inches.

Steve Trafton(USA) / Katherine Trafton(USA)       1915 - American La France
Tim Taylor(USA) / Ike Trafton(USA)                      1925 - American La France

http://blueribbonnews.com/2016/05/rockwall-resident-to-pilot-custom-built-vintage-car-in-worlds-longest-rally/

Below is a 1917 LaFrance Tourer Speedster

http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Day-13-Aya-Novosibirsk/G0000LBduz1kvr2k/I0000Jeq2wrDT0Nk/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds

http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Day-02-Datong-Erenhot/G0000VuESEKlPYDo/I0000nUuhIOL_SBg/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds

a car that can be driven across a continent, and a car you can stand on... I dig that.
http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Place-Vendome/G0000AbvLgyIVNSE/I0000Sj7V9olaep0/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds

http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Peking-to-Paris-2016/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds  is a great link to see the cars on the route, or get a gallery of any one particular car based on the number it was registered with at this list of oldest to newest in each class http://www.endurorally.com/pages/peking-to-paris-motor-challenge-2016-participants

the AMX that is getting worked up to be in the 2016 Peking to Paris rally

testing!

Experienced rally veterans Jim Valentine and Jonathan Lodge have prepared a 1968 AMC AMX.

http://p2pamx.co.uk/

Paris to Peking race 1907 postcards

Found on http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/411944/418308.html?1390601715

Photos from the Peking to Paris annual Motor Challenge

photo gallery and write up at http://www.businessinsider.com/classic-cars-race-in-peking-to-paris-rally-2013-6

the 1907 Spyker that competed in the Peking to Paris great race

Found on http://www.cardesign.ru/forum/diskussii/obschenie/1352

 the Itala that won the race is here: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/winner-of-1907-paris-to-peking.html

The challenge to drive from Peking, China (modern day Beijing) to Paris, France in 1907, using totally untested automobiles, was taken up by five men:
- Prince Scipione Borghese, accompanied by his mechanic Ettore Guizzardi. They were further accompanied by Italian journalist Luigi Barzini, Sr.
- Charles Goddard, accompanied by journalist Jean du Taillis.
- Auguste Pons and Octave Foucault, his mechanic.
- Georges Cormier.
- Victor Collignon.

On the 30th of August, twenty days later, the Spyker, followed by the two De Dions, arrived in Paris. Charles Goddard wasn’t behind the wheel of the Spyker; due to money-troubles, he wasn’t able to finish the race! But his car won second place and that was probably good enough
found on http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/peking-to-paris-the-original-amazing-race/

The winner of the 1907 Paris to Peking endurance race

The 1907 ITALA mod. 35/45 HP won 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.

The 9,300 mile race was kicked off by a challenge by a newspaper "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?"

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 driven by Count Scipione Borghese, winning by three weeks. These sporting successes helped sales dramatically, the company continued to grow. The company experimented with a range of novel engines such as variable stroke, sleeve valve, and "Avalve" rotary types

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_to_Paris and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itala

https://www.facebook.com/napa.mathis?fref=photo

Probably the most incredible automobile race of all time

The race from Peking to Paris, in 1907

http://www.unmuseum.org/autorace.htm

15-horsepower (HP) Dutch Spyker.
10HP De Dion Boutons.
6HP Contal.
40HP Itala