PEKING TO PARIS CHALLENGE Eight countries, 33 days and 7610 of the remotest miles in the entire world: the Peking to Paris Challenge returns THEWORDS Glyn Tucker // PHOTOGRAPHY Gerard BrownCALL OF THE WILD OCTANE OCTOBER 2013 121 PEKING TO PARIS CHALLENGE RUSSIA UKRAINE KAZAKHSTAN MONGOLIA Paris AUSTRIA SLOVAKIA FRANCE SWITZERLAND Peking CHINA AWN BREAKS SUDDENLY on the vast open plains of Mongolia’s wilderness. The sun begins as a smudge of ‘SEVERAL WERE UNABLE TO purple, mixed with brown, on the horizon, and then the dull orb of orange rises and the prairie begins to change colour. On this morning the temperature climbs MAINTAIN MOMENTUM AND quickly, and as the mercury rises the stiff wind that accompanied last night’s sunset returns. Someone in the big green tent sounds the gong for breakfast. FOUND THEMSELVES ROLLING Yesterday’s journey to this overnight rest-stop required us to navigate Dmoonscapes of dusty rocks, thread narrow canyons and climb alarmingly BACKWARDS INTO THE PATH OF steep tracks with names like ‘The Mountain of Doom’. There, several crews were unable to maintain forward momentum and found themselves rolling backwards into the path of a hard-charger gunning it; A HARD-CHARGER GUNNING IT’ others were forced to pull over and wait for a tow from a friendly rival. The ascent was made even more difficult by cows and herds of goats coming down the track, eager to escape the creeping cold of night. ‘Doom’ certainly lived up to its name, and many of our fellow competitors saw their fortunes change dramatically over two miles of mountain climbing. TEN DAYS of hard driving separate the Chinese border in the south-east from the tiny Russian checkpoint in the north-west. Crossing Mongolia is like no other motoring experience. You can drive all day and not see another soul – no people, no animals, no birds, no insects. Finding your way is almost as tricky a challenge as that faced by the pioneers who came this way in 1907 on the very first international motor rally. 122 OCTOBER 2013 OCTANE OCTANE XXXX 2013 123 ‘YOU CAN DRIVE ALL DAY IN MONGOLIA AND NOT SEE ANOTHER SOUL – NO PEOPLE, NO ANIMALS, NO BIRDS, NO INSEcts’ They had no maps, of course, only a compass. No money, either – food was bought by carving off slivers from bars of silver. And no roads. The only tracks were paths designed to lead nomads to a well ‘THE PIONEERS WHO CAME or a goat pen, and they were usually littered with rocks the size of footballs. While we are afforded luxuries like cash and a route book, THIS WAY IN 1907 ON THE we drive those same paths, stopping at wells and streams to fill up our radiator, just as Prince Scipione Borghese did 106 years ago. His were the first wheels ever to cross this turf but, out here, you can find VERY FIRst INTERNATIONAL yourself muttering, ‘Nobody else has ever driven this way, ever.’ The smell of herbs, crushed by the car’s wheels, fills your nostrils. Mongolia even smells different to anywhere else on Earth. You feel as MOTOR RALLY HAD NO MAPS, lonely as a yachtsman in a dinghy in the middle of the Atlantic, and the tyre marks left in the thousands of miles grassland are your wake. NO MONEY, AND NO ROADS’ OCTANE XXXX 2013 127 What an incentive to keep pushing on. Now and then we come across a red-shirted timekeeper, asking for a time card. ‘Who else have you ‘FOOD AND FUEL BECOME OUR seen?’ we ask, usually to be told that only one or two other crews have come this way, and some hours ago at that. GREATEst WORRY. THE PRE- Central Mongolia remains just as remote as it was when Borghese and his mates explored it on the original 1907 event: we, too, need special fuel and food supplies, which must be found each day if DELIVERED SUPPLIES MUst BE we are not to become stranded. Fuel and food, in fact, are often our greatest worry. After Mongolia comes Russia. Local motoring clubs provide dusty FOUND EACH DAY IF WE ARE dirt trails for time trials, and the Russian steppes prove to be as empty as Mongolia. Yurts are replaced by rickety-looking log cabins. Driving NOT TO BECOME stRANDEd’ into the Ukraine, we are met by vast crowds of cheering spectators. Here the national motor federation has arranged for streets to be closed in city centres, and we are repeatedly mobbed by photographers and film crews. SOME DAYS are so empty that we begin to wonder where our 90-plus It’s like this all the way now – into Slovakia, Austria and even remaining rivals have got to. The GPS tests our confidence again and Switzerland – with closed-road mountain climbs providing a sting in again: is this gadget really telling the truth? Are we pressing the right the tail. Of the 96 crews that set out, only eight fail to drive into France. buttons? What the hell; if we go left of that far mountain, and then We feel an indescribable sense of relief as we pull up at the Place swing right, even if everyone else has gone right at the mountain we’ll Vendôme in the centre of Paris and turn off the engine for the last all meet up again, surely? time. Banners wave, loved ones cheer and we taste the Champagne The cars are spread out now. Some are 40 kilometres back but we that marks the end of a remarkable 32-day driving odyssey. must all meet up before the sun goes down. For one thing, we need to Tales of high adventure and challenges met are shared over the find the tanker carrying all our fuel for tomorrow, not to mention the prize-giving dinner. As Prince Borghese said when he stepped down 40-strong team in the chuckwagons who prepare our food, dig the from his Itala, ‘Gentlemen, you were right! This route by motor car toilets, get the fires lit for our hot water. Goodness, a hot shower… is… quite impossible.’ 128 XXXX 2013 OCTANE OCTANE OCTOBER 2013 129 PEKING TO PARIS CHALLENGE ROAD WARRIORS Braver men than we recount their experiences of the fifth Peking to Paris Challenge CAR 30 CAR 15 CAR 99 Chevrolet Fangio Coupe Phil Garratt Ford Model A Speedster Bill Cleyndert Bentley Sports Special Anton Gonnissen ‘It was a big gamble to buy the winning car from ‘If you are going to step so far outside of your ‘I’ve driven the Paris-Dakar three times and I the 2010 event. We went right through it, replacing comfort zone, you might as well start how you must say this event was very, very good indeed. anything with the slightest sign of metal fatigue. mean to go on, roughing it. There was less room The camaraderie was really special: everyone We worked it hard to get into the lead in Mongolia in the Ford than in a Frogeye Sprite. helped everyone, the back-up mechanics that and then, with 40 minutes in hand, took it as slowly ‘We hammered because we were out for swept through the field worked very hard, long as we dared. We only carried very light spares, and maximum fun. Nobody expected us to do well so it into the night, and the medics were excellent. took the bare minimum of luggage. We packed one was great getting up the leaderboard day after day. To take an old car and drive it through so much spare shirt each! Every pound you put on the car is Yes, we broke everything. Steering, brakes, stunning scenery is a very special experience. Not extra work for the suspension. crankshaft, camshaft, you name it. But if you are until you do it yourself do you properly appreciate ‘We had a heart-stopping moment when we broke prepared never to give up, you will find a way. how life-changing this is for many people. a clutch cable. Fortunately, we had a spare, and ‘Coasting down a mountain into Davos with a ‘We drove a Bentley Special, with an 8.0-litre changed it by the roadside. We then went like hell busted water pump and wondering if it was game engine from a tank. When we found the engine it to make the next Time Control and got in with a over, but then spotting an old Model A Ford outside was new – it had never been run before – but it minute to spare. That’s what it’s all about… a hotel, is just one of the episodes I’ll remember. certainly served us well. We made up a lot of ‘You have to put this event on your bucket list – you Someone was looking down on us that day. We places on the leaderboard in the course of the haven’t lived until you have driven Peking to Paris.’ gave it our all, and never stopped laughing.’ race, and have made a lot of new friends.’ CAR 90 CAR 63 CAR 57 Leyland P76 Gerry Crown (on left) Porsche 911 Peter Lovett Lancia Fulvia Coupé Gianmaria Aghem ‘I entered very late. Having driven the previous ‘Second overall in the Classics Category is okay. ‘Initially, I wasn’t sure if we’d even be granted an three Peking-Paris retrospectives, I wanted to We never let the red mist descend too much – entry – Philip Young said our car would come out have one more go. I managed to win the Classics it was a case of driving carefully all the way while of Mongolia on the end of a tow-rope.