Peking to Paris
The car race Paris - Beijing was a rally for automobiles, the (China) was organized to Paris (France) in 1907 on the nearly 16,000 km long distance from Beijing.
The race Peking - Paris
The idea for the race came from the Paris newspaper Le Matin, which published a call on January 31, 1907 " What remains to be proved today is that a man as long as he is in possession of a car, do everything and be everywhere can hinbegeben. Is there someone who will take a ride by car from Beijing to Paris this summer? "
It signed up to forty participants for the race, but eventually mastered only five teams to ship transfer of their vehicles to Beijing. Although the race committee then canceled the race started anyway. The vehicles left on 10 June at 8.00 clock the Chinese capital.
For the race, no rules were considered, it was clear only that the one who reached his cars first Paris would win as a prize a magnum of Mumm champagne. Without any support from signs or teams advance the race led by totally unknown for drivers countries where there are no roads, let alone gave reliable maps frequently. To the driver to ever supply them with fuel, fuel drums were brought on camels from Beijing to stations that you einrichtete along the way. At the exhibition you also telegraph, so that could be reported in detail on the race in the newspapers of that time. In every car also ran a journalist who regularly reported by telegraph from first hand by himself.
The race was held at a time when cars were fairly new, and led through remote areas in Central Asia, where people motorized transport did not know for the most part. The route between Peking and Lake Baikal was only recently addressed to horses. The winner was the Italian Prince Scipione Borghese of the Borghese family, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini. He was confident and even made a trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg for a dinner which was held for the team, then went back to Moscow and rejoined the race again. The event was planned not as a race or competition, but quickly became to such due to its pioneering nature and the technical superiority of the Italian cars, a Itala 35/45 hp 7,433 cc displacement. The Italians reached Paris on August 10, expected of journalists, photographers and a big crowd.
In second place was Charles Goddard on a Spyker, who himself had no money and therefore ask others for fuel and borrow his car had. He arrived in the French capital on August 30. Some of the other cars had difficulties gorges up it to get through mud, quicksand and over bridges that were not designed for vehicles. The Contal wheel remained stuck in the Gobi Desert and has not been recovered, the drivers had the good fortune to be found by nomads living. Barzini published the book Peking to Paris in 1908, which was filled with hundreds of images.
Team
- Italian Itala ( 1 ), driven by Prince Scipione Borghese and Ettore Guizzardi
- Dutch Spyker ( 2 ), driven by Charles Goddard with Jean du Taillis
- Three-wheeled Contal, driven by Auguste Pons
- De Dion -Bouton, driven by Georges Cormier
- De Dion -Bouton, driven by Victor Collignon
Paris race in 1908
In 1908 a similar race took place, this time with start on 12th February in New York City. The route led westwards across the USA, by ship to Japan and finally, comparable to the races Beijing - Paris, across Siberia via Moscow to Paris. One of the participants was Auguste Pons, who had already participated in the previous race. The winner was the American George Schuster. He arrived on July 30, 1908 in Paris, 169 days after he had left New York. The distance traveled was about 21,470 km.