1. Fascinating long-distance journey from Paris to Beijing

2. Automotive adventure between Europe and Asia

3. Historical model: Peking-Paris 1907

4. 450,000-kilometer endurance test for Michelin tires

5. Sulphur-free Superdiesel by the 10,000 liters

6. The new generation E-Class

7. Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI Guard: special protection for
    more safety

Historical model: Beijing – Paris 1907: Long-distance journey into the unknown

Stuttgart, Oct 17, 2006
99 years ago, the first transcontinental race in automobile history started in Peking. Originally conceived to demonstrate the superiority of the automobile over the horse, this ambitious undertaking for intrepid enthusiasts soon developed into a full-blown race with no holds barred.

On 31st January 1907, an unusual advertisement in the French daily newspaper “Le Matin” caught the attention of the public: “Does anybody wish to drive an automobile from Paris to Peking this summer?”

The question must have given rise to some disbelief among the readers – after all, it was only 21 years ago that Karl Benz had invented the automobile in the form of his three-wheeled “Patent Motor Wagon”. And it was only 13 years previously that the first car race had been held from Paris to Rouen. Only 15 of the 21 competitors had finished this race, among them nine vehicles powered by Panhard-Levassor engines built under a Daimler licence and a 3 hp “Vis-à-Vis”. But now from Paris to Peking, one hundred times the distance?

The initiators at Le Matin were serious, however. Their aim was to demonstrate the superiority of the automobile over the horse, and they tapped into the pioneering spirit of the times. Just over one month later, 62 drivers and mechanics had registered to take part in the “Raid”, the name by which the race was soon known.

But the nearer the date for shipping the vehicles to China approached – the direction of the race had meanwhile been reversed for weather reasons, and the starting point was now Peking – the more ambition and courage crumbled away. In the event, only eleven intrepid participants in five vehicles remained when the starter’s flag fell in Peking on June 10, 1907.

Prince Scipione Borghese entered the lists in an Italian Itala with 40 hp. Charles Godard drove a Dutch Spyker with 15 hp, accompanied by a reporter from Le Matin. Two other cars, French De Dion Boutons developing 10 hp, were driven by the Frenchmen Collignon and Cormier, while a compatriot named Auguste Pons was at the wheel of a 6 hp, three-wheeled Contal.

Fully laden with supplies, replacement parts, tools and breakdown equipment, the teams assembled at the starting line in the morning of June 10, 1907, a Monday. Ahead of them lay around 10,000 miles and many, nowadays unimaginable hardships.

The adventure begins

The very first section leading to the Mongolian highlands with their almost insuperable mountain ranges proved to be a severe trial for the competitors. The route was almost completely devoid of roads or paths, which meant that each driver had to find his own way. Numerous helping hands were frequently required to negotiate isolated bridges with no ramps, narrow, almost impassable ravines and muddy, slippery uphill and downhill slopes. Porters with bamboo poles, horsemen and farmers with ox carts awaited the automobile pioneers at every staging post to ensure that the drivers would not be obliged to capitulate in places where the vehicles reached their technical limits. The three-wheeled Contal found the going particularly difficult. With only one driven wheel, a low vehicle weight and an unfavourable weight distribution owing to the load, there were “natural” limits to its traction. An empty fuel tank in the Gobi desert brought the race to a premature end for Pons and his co-driver Foucault. Dying of thirst and completely lost, the two Frenchmen were eventually rescued by nomads after one and a half days.

The Raid becomes a race

By this time a shared adventure had developed into a full-blown race. Prince Scipione Borghese, who was in the lead, had decided to drive around Lake Baikal with his Itala on the way to Irkutsk, instead of using the ferry, and in view of the unknown terrain the Raid committee had given this its prior approval. On June 28 he left the ferry port of Missowaya on Lake Baikal by the overland route – but this had long ceased to exist. The former track was completely overgrown and blocked by fallen trees, and not infrequently, disused, crumbling bridges collapsed behind the Itala immediately after it had passed across them. When one of these collapses almost spelled the end of race for him, Borghese seized his chance on catching sight of the next river: In order to cross the Mishika, he used a bridge built for the recently opened Trans-Siberian Railway, bumping along the track in his 40 hp Itala with two wheels between the rails and the other two on the sleeper’s side. Having even obtained official permission to use the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Governor General of Siberia, the diplomat was soon well on his way to Irkutsk.

Two days after the Prince, the group of French participants with their De Dion Boutons and the Spyker arrived – also by rail, as they had waited in vain for a ferry at Lake Baikal. Shortly after his arrival, Godard encountered technical problems with his Spyker: The magneto ignition developed a defect, the rear axle housing developed a leak and the very low final drive ratio was highly unsuitable for the roads ahead. In Cheremchovo, shortly after leaving Irkutsk, the car gave up the ghost. Godard responded to the situation with a daring plan: Although the Dutch Spyker mechanic Bruno Stephan was already travelling to meet him, he loaded the defective vehicle onto a train and travelled 1,350 kilometres further west to Tomsk, where the best technical academy in all of Russia was located. Once the repairs had been completed, he intended to return to Cheremchovo to continue the race in accordance with the rules.

A triumph for the Prince

Meanwhile Scipione Borghese had an unassailable lead, which was due to the superior power of his car and daily maintenance by his capable mechanic Ettore Guizzardi. On Wednesday, July 27 Borghese and his team reached Moscow to great public acclaim. He was now so far in the lead that he was able to enjoy the various receptions and dinners held in his honour with an easy mind, regain his strength and even indulge the wishes of his friends and supporters by taking a detour to the Russian capital of St. Petersburg – well off the planned route – to attend a ball held by the local Peking-Paris committee.

When he arrived in Paris 62 days after setting off from Peking, the weather was just as grey and rainy as at the start of the long-distance race. This by no means dampened the festive mood, however. To the strains of the triumphal march from Aida, which was played by a brass band on the upper deck of an open-top bus preceding the procession, the victorious Itala entered Paris in triumph. The cheering onlookers lined the streets in twelve-deep rows, and the road outside the editorial offices of Le Matin had to be laboriously cleared by guardsmen before the Itala was even able to reach the ceremonial platform.

Meanwhile the other participants were still battling for every kilometre in Russia. They subsequently described the 400 kilometres or so between Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod as the worst section. It rained continuously, there were no roads at all, and owing to these adverse conditions they managed only 38 kilometres on the first day of that stretch. The roads improved to the west of Moscow, and the faster Spyker was given the task of investigating and securing petrol supplies in the local drugstores. Godard’s character, which was praised by several of the other participants, forbade him from using the superiority of his car and simply disappearing into the distance – as Borghese had done in the desert.

A dramatic finale

The performance of the Dutch Spyker was however giving cause for concern at the offices of the French Le Matin. The whole purpose of the “Raid”, which was to generate publicity for the French automobile industry, appeared to be seriously in danger now that the winner’s trophy had already gone to the Italians. In short order the Managing Director of Le Matin had Charles Godard arrested for irregularities before the race when he entered France.

But the head of Spyker, Jakobus Spijker, was not unprepared for this and put a works driver behind the wheel for the last stretches of the journey. On August 30, 1907, just under three weeks after Prince Borghese, the two De Dion Boutons and the Spyker arrived in Paris. After more than 15,000 kilometres of hardship, Georges Cormier, Victor Collignon and the teams were given the same rousing reception as the overall winner. After all, they were all winners at the end of the first long-distance race in automobile history.

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