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In 1907 a group of motor car enthusiasts took
it upon themselves to show what the car could
do - roads or no roads. Together with the
London Daily Telegraph and the French newspaper
Le Matin, they announced the greatest race
in human history, a two-month, 8,000 mile
odyssey through China, Mongolia and the Siberian
Steppes - Peking to Paris. Five cars - three
French, one Dutch, and one Italian - were
to compete in "the most extraordinary race
yet, an international competition among men,
industries, and diverse conceptions of the
ideal machine of the future."
 The 1907 motor rally
was a grand stunt designed to kick off the
greatest transport revolution since the invention
of the steam train in 1804.
When the race was over, there was little doubt
that its organizers had achieved their goal.
The world was in love with a driving machine.
Luigi Barzini, an Italian journalist who had
the fortune of riding a car custom made by
Fiat, published his account of the race just
months after the rally. Peking to Paris, an
instant best seller, was translated into 13
languages and is still favorably compared
to Jules Verne's classic Around The World
In 80 Days. The age of the Auto had begun.
 1908 was the first running
of New York to Paris - The Longest Auto Race!
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 In 1908, when automobiles were in the infancy
of a long and increasingly sophisticated life
span, the seemingly preposterous suggestion
was made that a race between American and
foreign cars be run from New York's Times
Square to Paris. Surrounded by a throng of
250,000 spectators, the French came to the
starting line with three entries, Italy, Germany,
and the United States with each one. The route
of these six primitive open behemoths was
made from New York to Chicago, across the
West, to the Pacific Coast (before accomplished
by only a few automobiles in the summertime),
aboard ship to Japan, through the vast reaches
of Siberia and Russia, and finally, over the
european eontinent to Paris.
Only on the day before the race began was
the winner entered, a Thomas Flyer, manufactured
in Buffalo, New York, today, fully restored
and on exhibit in the Harrah Museum on vintage
automobiles in Reno, Nevada. Long before the
cars reached Chicago, their crews had experienced
the discouraging effects of bitter winter
weather and mechanical failure. At San Francisco
four cars remained in competition. Paris was
reached by only three.
 The direct inspiration of the New York to
Paris competition was a fantastic race in
1907 of cars from Peking , China, across the
Gobi Desert, Siberia, and Europe to Paris.
Prince Scipione Borghese, an Italian nobleman,
won this in an Itala car followed by two French
machines, both De Dions. Le Matin, a Paris
newspaper, sponsored this event. Looking for
new glory, this publication planned the around
the world event and enlisted the New York
Times as co-sponsor. Excitement mounted. The
whole world was interested. "The stupendous
undertaking is a veritable romance," said
the Daily Mail of London. "Is such a journey
possible? Theoretically it is, but it must
be bore in mind that the motor car, after
woman, is the most fragile and capricious
thing on earth."
Much has changed since the original 1907 Peking
to Paris rally - empires are gone, Marxism
has come and gone, and with it the Cold War
and the geo-politics of the superpowers. Stealth
bombers have replaced nerve gas. Satellite
telephone has replaced the telegraph. And
cars - hundreds of millions of them - have,
indeed, changed the world. The second running
of this historic race will take 85 drivers
on a 45 day journey through some of the most
volatile and visually stunning regions on
the planet.
- Portions from The Longest
Auto race by George Schuster with Tom Mahoney
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