The 1907 Challenge

In an article in the French newspaper Le Martin in January of 1907, the editors raised a challenge to the world:
...We ask this question of car manufacturers in France and abroad: Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Paris to Peking by automobile? Whoever he is, this tough and daring man, whose gallant car will have a dozen nations watching its progress, he will certainly deserve to have his name spoken as a byword in the four quarters of the earth...

Not only did one man take on this impossible challenge, eleven men did. It became not only a difficult course to drive, but a race.

The original proposal was to drive from Paris to Peking, but the plan was later reversed to avoid the summer rains in northern China.

The 1907 Cars

Five cars set out on the challenge – an Itala, a Spyker, two De Doins and a Contal three-wheeler. All but the three-wheeler made it to Paris. That one, it is said, may still be buried in the sands of the Gobi Desert after it ran out of fuel. Its two riders almost died from heat and thirst, but were rescued by a passing camel caravan.

The 1907 Route

Soon after leaving the cheering crowds in Peking, it wasn’t long before the group began to have problems. Paths were narrow with some trials cut out of a cliff with a shear drop into a gorge only inches from the car’s tyres. Roads were too steep for the car’s engines, and mules or men pulling ropes hitched to the cars were needed to drag them through the mountain passes separating northern China from the Mongolian plains. The racers kept on track through the Gobi Desert by following the telegraph line. Through Siberia, railway tracks were used as a substitute for roads. After reaching Moscow, the trip become comparatively uneventful as the cars travelled through Europe.

The winning car was the Itala driven by an Italian count, Prince Scipione Borghese. On 10th August, 1907, the Itala entered Paris after leaving Peking on 10 June. It had taken sixty-one days to drive from Peking to Paris. The pair of De Dion-Burtons and the Spyker arrived in Paris 20 days later.