CARS –

The Peking to Paris motor race was an automobile race, originally held in 1907, between Peking (now Beijing), then Qing China (now the People’s Republic of China) and Paris, France (then the Third French Republic), a distance of 14,994 kilometres (9,317 mi).

The idea for the race came from a challenge published in the Paris newspaper Le Matin on 31 January 1907, reading:

“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 Paris to Peking by automobile?“

Eventually the race started from the French embassy in Peking on 10 June 1907. The winner, Prince Scipione Borghese, arrived in Paris on 10 August 1907.^[1]

In 1997 there was “The Second Peking to Paris Motor Challenge”, consisting of 94 vintage cars, which took a more southerly route through Tibet, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. It was won by the British pair Phil Surtees and John Bayliss, driving a 1942 Willys Jeep.

Signed by Authors. First Edition. pp. 175 illusts. #311025