Drivers rev up for the 6th Peking to Paris endurance rally

There will be 110 cars parked by the Great Wall near Beijing on Sunday, with drivers bristling to begin the 6th Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. Judging from past records, however, about 30 per cent of them will not reach the finish line.

Teams in the almost 13,700km endurance rally, which takes 36 days to complete, will face some of the world’s most challenging terrain, ranging from mountains to desert. They will cross their first border into Mongolia, then spend a 23-day stretch in Russia before winding through the European Alps and, with luck, end in the French capital. These are not state-of-the-art motorsports vehicles, however. The line-up comprises classics produced no later than 1975, including a category of pre-1941 models.

The rally is an extreme sport version of motorsport, says businessman and amateur racing car driver Nigel Farmer, a member of one of three Hong Kong teams taking part. Farmer and team 76 co-driver Steve Lovell will be at the wheel of a 1971 Ford Escort Mexico Mk1, which they bought two-and-a-half years ago and had extensively customised.

“We were determined to buy something British and ultimately from the ’70s, when we were schoolboys. The Mexico has a fantastic rally pedigree, having won the London to Mexico Rally in 1970, which is why it has the name. So for us this was choice No 1,” Farmer says.

“It was then a completely standard road-going Mexico. It was bought privately in UK and our only consideration was the frame, chassis and bodywork be fairly rust-free so we didn’t need major repairs.”

Nevertheless a great deal of work has gone into the car, including stripping down and rebuilding the engine, a wider replacement axle installed, and new brakes, electrics and shock absorbers.