From Tiananmen to the Eiffel Tower - or bust
Four European adventurers set off from Tiananmen Square in two vintage cars yesterday morning to mark the centenary of the famous Peking to Paris road race.
Over the next 60 days, the three Britons and one Swiss plan to re-create the legendary race of 1907 by driving more than 12,000km across the Gobi desert and Eurasian steppes in two restored Austin Seven 'Chummys', both dating back to 1930.
'I have wanted to do this for 25 years,' said Kip Waistell, a retired solicitor and instigator of the trip. 'My first attempt in 1981 fell through when the organiser went bust. But in 2005, when my wife and I rode back to the UK from Kazakhstan on two scooters, I started to plan for it.'
The original idea for a race from Beijing to Paris came from 'a stupendous challenge' issued by the French newspaper Le Matin to prove the robustness of the then newfangled motor car.
'Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by motor car?' the newspaper asked.
Five cars entered the race, which was won by a flamboyant Italian prince, Scipione Borghese.
He was accompanied by journalist Luigi Barzini, whose tales of broken wheels, hazardous Mongolian river crossings, recalcitrant locals and Siberian highwaymen have entered motoring legend.
'It is possible that something could go disastrously wrong. We have heard stories about bandits in Russia,' admitted Sebastian Welch, the group's mechanic.
His co-driver and eight times British vintage-rally champion, Annabel Jones, said: 'We have a couple of trekking poles, which we could use as weapons, as well as a stash of money to buy off highwaymen. But I am confident nothing will go wrong that we can't fix - even if the cars are held together by string at the end.'
The group, which is sponsored by aid agency Unicef, hopes to raise #9,000 (HK$139,271) to buy 3,500 mosquito nets to protect Kenyan children from malaria.
The biggest challenge would be the unmarked roads and emptiness of the Gobi desert, Waistell said.
'The Gobi desert - that's the thing. If anything goes wrong, we could be in a pickle,' he said.
