Just imagine it - driving 10,000 kilometers before you can fill up with petrol using a credit card, driving the highest road in the world at 17,000 feet, covering 14000 kilometers from China to Turkey before you reach a motorway, taking your car beyond the Mount Everest base camp, crossing not one but three deserts, fording 17 major rivers - and all in a car that is at least 30 years old, if not 90 years old!
In 1907, Prince Scipo Borghese won the inaugural and only motorcar race from Peking to Paris, immortalised by Tony Randall & Jack Lemmon in the classic film The Great Race.
Ninety years later over 90 classic and vintage cars departed Beijing for Paris in a re-creation of that epic race following a route literally across the top of the world through China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and France, reaching Paris some 45 days later.
The 1997 Peking To Paris Challenge features such motoring luminaries as Lord Montague in a 1914 Vauxhall, Prince Idris Shah in 1954 Studebaker, Phil Surtees in a Willys Jeep, and a fascinating selection of classic and veteran cars including Volvos, Mercedes, Aston Martins and a Bugatti, driven by competitors of all ages from around the world. Compiled from footage of the entire duration of the event, capturing all the sights, sounds, mishaps, comedy and emotions of an epic journey and amazing adventure, often against the odds, across three continents, The Mad Motorists is the ultimate adventure story. |
