Peking to Paris 2007

Hardly, the police kept the crowd at bay. It seemed that all Paris wanted to hug them, to recognize in them that part of themselves, the part of an adventure, of a dream, of "incredible journey." The Itala of Prince Scipione Borghese arrived in front of the palace of the daily Le Matin. From every window sprouted photographers and videographers. The band that on an omnibus had accompanied the car through the city playing the notes of the triumphal march from Aida, kept silent. Also, the cheering people felt quiet, it was a solemn moment. It was raining hard. Borghese performed a reversal, managing to stop the car in front of the main entrance of the newspaper, exactly where it started the red carpet of the grand welcome. He turned off the engine. It was 16.30 on 10 August 1907. The big race was over, a man had been able to bring a car from Beijing to Paris in 60 days. After one hundred years, May 27, 2007, We are starting from Beijing. The arrival in Paris is expected on 30 JuneThe inscriptions were opened practically in early autumn 2004. In October, we went to Morocco for the Sahara challenge and the organizer - Philip Young - told us to hurry because soon it would have exceeded the proposed maximum number of competitors (100 teams). He sent us the list of members, many friends, only a few places still available. We signed up quickly and we could be entered in the list of one hundred. We went to England in February 2005 and in October we returned for the first briefing of Gaydon: air of celebration, so many old friends and many new faces. Another meeting in February 2007 for a "Garmin day" focused on the use of GPS. Us with the Giulietta, to subjected it to a test of three thousand kilometers and more. We will follow, almost step by step, the historic route of 1907. But the prince had to travel 12,000 kilometers that today we can only define with a turn of phrase like "there were no roads." We will have our big difficulties especially in the beginning, in Mongolia: tracks uncertain, dust and stones, petrol at 70 octanes, campings for ten days. Then things should improve. But we will always find Siberian steppes. Urals, Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Baltic states, Gdansk, Berlin, Place de la Concorde. Once there, we will have won our bet: bring a historic car from the Great Wall to the Eiffel Tower in a rally. Respecting stages and time controls, participating in 'special tests', relying only on ourselves and on parts that we will have had the sagacity to take us below. Together with all imaginable difficulties we have to add the inconvenience of connections: because, during the race, we'll also work, write, film and transmit our news. We know, you could say: "It is not a doctor order ..." but missing one year at the start and already we can not wait.