A full century has passed since the French newspaper Le Matin (“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 an anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Pékin to Paris by automobile?”) organized the Peking-to-Paris event, an endure that lived up to its hype. The dangerous event proved, according to the first finisher Prince Scipione Borghese, that “in the present year of grace it is impossible to go by motor-car alone – comfortable seated on the cushions of the same – from Peking to Paris”. Void of all comfort, however, four of five cars did finish the journey. We reflect on that perilous adventure, with the aid of an extraordinary text (see below) written by Tracy Powell and Peter Rütimann, and published in the American magazine “Automobile Quarterly”, volume 47, number 4, fourth quarter 2007.
