DJ - We are reporting to you on the eighth of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. This has been our most difficult day and our report comes to you by satellite telephone at a location that is at an elevation of 12,600, somewhere in China. We're in a very remote part of China, a day and a half away from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. We have managed to survive the day along with most of the cars, but we have had an extraordinarily demanding and fatiguing day. What has made is so is the combination of the road conditions and the elevation. The best analogy I can make of the road conditions would be that in this part of China, the roads are similar to the Alaskan highway before it was improved and these roads may be even worse than those were at that time. There is a vast frontier that exists between the last major city, Golmund, from where we reported yesterday and Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It is 1,300 kilometers between those two points. There's, as far as we can tell, no telephone within a few hundred miles of where we are tonight. The Chinese do road work at the same time that roads are attempted to be used for truck and occasional car traffic. Two-thirds of our travel was on an asphalt surface, one-third was on a gravel, and at times, mud surface. Adding to the complexity were five, what are called diversions. Diversions are where traffic leaves the highway surface, the road surface because of culverts and bridges that are being built. The diversions are practically ill suited for motorized travel. There is mud, there are curves, there are ruts, it is really quite extraordinary. It is very, very difficult. On the pavement that is asphalt, two-thirds, Carl describes it like riding on ocean waves. There are these four foot swells constantly on the paved surface. So 500 kilometers of that today made for a very difficult day, a very demanding day on the cars. Some of which are struggling, gasping for both fuel and air through the carburation as a result of the altitude. We did successfully navigate two passes at the altitude of 15,000 feet.

85 cars started in today's event, one minute apart. Each day takes it toll. We have been advised that the Brooks' car, the 1949 Buick Woody station wagon from Iowa, has had to, as the British say, retired. The oldest car in the competition, a 1907 LaFrance, driven by a gentlemen we call, Herman the German, also had to retire, in part because of health and because of demands on the vehicle.

Our health is OK. We are currently taking Diabox, the altitude medication recommended by our physicians, and that makes one drowsy and there is a tingling sensation in your arms as a result of that. We want to report to Dr. Avery that we successfully used the Continuous Positive Air inside the car today at the high altitudes and that did help interject some oxygen during the high altitude part of the travel.

Carl said that one of the good things about where we traveled today is that having been here now, we will not have to come back again. We're camping tonight at 12,600 feet in an open field adjacent to a Chinese army barracks in a small village called Tuotuoheyan, which we understand in Chinese means village by the river. The temperatures here are winter like, near 40 degrees, occasional snow, which makes pretty good demands on both man and machine, as result of today's activities. We understand that tomorrow might very well be more of the same as today as we make our approach to Lhasa, which is a day and a half away now. We are 3,150 kilometers from Peking. The automobiles all are taking a pounding as a result of the altitude and the road conditions. But, we're proceeding and no one said it was going to be a leisurely drive and today, being on those adverse and difficult roads, we can confirm that it is not an easy proposition to travel from Peking to Paris. The 1954 Packard is holding up under the demanding conditions, but it's also showing some signs in the carburation, the instrumentation is somewhat questionable and we're putting a lot of demands on the suspension system of the car. But, we're still in the event and optimistic that we'll do what has to be done to persevere. We're making this report to you by satellite telephone and we are about to end our day and get a night's rest surrounded by snow capped mountains at an elevation of 12,600 feet in very remote, frontier western China. That's our report for now. We wanted to check in with you and let you know how we were proceeding and we'll say good-bye until our next report.