IT took 90 years for the Chinese to be persuaded to allow a re-enactment of the original Peking to Paris. There has only been one such event since 1997, and it was organised by us. We were offered a choice of three routes out of Beijing by the Chinese authorities – the longest, most challenging, and certainly the most difficult was a route that had never been driven by any rally... crossing the roof of the world through Tibet. It would involve the opening up of the border into Nepal at Friendship Bridge, which had been slammed shut by Chairman Mao 40 years before and remained closed to outsiders.

We opted for the challenge of the southern route, here at the Rally Office we like the challenge of “firsts”. It also gave every competitor the adventure of driving something that had never been done before – a unique experience. It also provided the type of roads and conditions that were faced by the 1907 Peking-Paris pioneers. We were to camp at the foot of Mount Everest, and emerge from our frost-coated tents to watch the sun rise up over the summit – we drove roads at 17,000ft. All 95 surviving cars re-fuelled from a special bowser, having breakfasted on spaghetti cooked by Nepalese specialists. Another day, another gravel road, beckoned to another distant horizon. An unforgettable drive for all who set out with “Everest” stamped on their time-card.

When we were first flagged away from the Great Wall, we received worrying news of a giant land-slip which had caused half a mountain to fall down a few miles from the Nepal border, closing the one and only road. We were due to doss down in a few old huts at Choksam, before crossing the border to Nepal, and for the 20 days we drove China and Tibet, getting nearer every day, the Chinese authorities worked day and night to clear the road. Like something from Indiana Jones, cars drove under giant waterfalls, and nervously placed their wheels within inches of the makeshift precipice. The road-menders had never seen a vintage Bentley or a Rolls-Royce before, so nobody knew if their workmanship of rickety planks across gulleys and ravines would hold....risky driving indeed. At Friendship Bridge, the Nepalese Government had given all children throughout the country a special day off to welcome drivers....the cheers and screams of delight echoed up the valley as the first vintage Bentley rumbled down the hillside...


We drove into Nepal, through the foothills of the Himalayas, into India, and on into Pakistan, crossing the trickiest and most sensitive border in the world in minutes. Every day offered new and different experiences.

In Iran, we were the first international rally to cross the country since the London to Sydney Marathon of 1977. Big Don Jones, an American in an American car with air-suspension that had blown itself to bits back on the roof of the world, limped towards the Iranian border, thinking that this would be the day he would be going home. A shepherd boy back at the Everest base-camp had stolen his wallet. All his money, all his credit cards, his passports for himself and his co-driver, his carnet-de-passage, his rally route-book and maps, all gone.

He sang “I left my heart in San Francisco” to the shy girls in the rusty corrugated-iron customs shed, who giggled under the black shawls covering their faces, and stamped a passport entry-stamp onto the back of his hand...and waved him on to the next country. Only the groundwork of three years of careful planning, several visits, and a thorough route-survey, building the foundations for a slick organisation capable of handling every eventuality, could pull off such a thing. No rally has been across Iran since. Other organisations go to the expense of hiring giant transporter aircraft to dodge some of the most beautiful roads in the world, where the officials and locals could not be more friendly.

Our 1997 Peking to Paris was the first time since 1997 – others had tried to pull off the permissions, including the son of Prince Borghese, but failed. Our next long distance rally was a real first, in every sense – the first-ever timed-lap of the globe, the Around the World in 80 Days. With a separate London to Peking leg, cars were airlifted only where there were no roads – from Beijing to Alaska, and out of New York to Marrakesh. On the 80th day, we returned to Tower Bridge, where Stirling Moss presented the prizes, and we all got drunk by the Thames as a special barge slipped under the bridge, with more than 1,000 fireworks lighting up the London night-sky. Only one car failed to complete the 80 days.

We founded the first-ever timed international rally, with the Pirelli Classic Marathon in 1988. A documentary made by the BBC at the time, The Great Race, notched up 6.2 million viewers – the BBC were delighted....the tennis finals of Wimbledon that year scored 4.5 million, and the British Grand Prix 3.2 million viewers. The rallying of historic cars was now well and truly on the map.

Television documentaries of the 2nd Peking to Paris Motor Challenge of 1997 have been seen on BBC2, and a series on the adventures, featuring every car and every driver, has been shown again and again on The Travel Channel and Discovery Channel of the Sky network....and syndicated in more than 60 different countries. The Peking to Paris of ’97 has won more television air-time than any other rally ever organised.

Now, with the benefit of some 50 major events, including last year’s Cape Town to Mombassa Classic Safari, we are to concentrate our energies and efforts on three years of careful planning to make the 100th anniversary of the original trans-continental marathon a resounding success.