John Horton's Peking to Paris Buick passing through a Russian town |
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Horton and co-driver Brooks arriving in Place Vendome, Paris |
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Event hero, solo driver Voboril, in Mongolia |
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Voboril arriving Koblenz, Germany |
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Unusual road sculpture in China |
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San Francisco’s John Horton, with co-driver Robert Brooks, recently arrived in Paris, at the end of a 35 day, 12,000 kilometer drive from Peking. I went there to meet them and several other friends who competed.
Horton drove his 1940 Buick Convertible, in the company of 130 other entrants, in an event that marked the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Peking-to-Paris Race.
The route traversed China, Mongolia, Siberia, European Russia, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany and France. The hardest portion, by far, was the 2000 km crossing of Mongolia, which is virtually roadless. Participants reported horrible conditions, including a loosely defined “road” with a corrugated surface that shook their cars to pieces no matter what speed they tried. It was on this section that Horton and Brooks got stuck in sand, broke an axle, and spent one day and two tented, but freezing, nights, awaiting rescue.
Teams all had GPS devices and satellite phones so they were in little danger of being lost. Flatbed trucks transported disabled cars out of Mongolia, as required by local laws. Horton’s Buick ended up in Novosibirsk(Siberia). He and Brooks got there, with 3 others, via a 13 hour, 700 km $600 cab ride in a tiny Toyota Echo. A competitor gave him an axle, which a Siberian shop modified to fit the Buick. Since they had lost over two days, they needed two crazy days of catch-up driving.
Horton, who is San Francisco’s Toyota dealer, found it reassuring that the breakdown rescue trucks, and that taxi, were all Toyotas, with all that implies as to sturdiness and reliability. In fact, those Toyota pickups breezed across Mongolia, hardly noticing the brutal conditions that crippled so many of the participants cars, that ranged in year from 1903 to 1961.
The 1903 car was a Mercedes. It broke down in Siberia, was repaired, and caught up with the race after a marathon 1700 km(1050 mile)two day drive, using all of its 50 mph top speed coping with ill-surfaced Siberian roads. Heroic feats like this were performed by many of the teams, overcoming huge hardships. One driver told me that he never saw a single tree in Mongolia, and found little to photograph. Drivers slept in yurts, saw yaks by the side of the “road”, and took two photos of the landscape. One photo showed the view past the phone poles. The opposite view showed nothing, except the horizon. Seven days of Mongolia had the crews anxious to experience the less hostile Siberian countryside.
Horton was in daily contact with a mutual friend and driver, Czech-born, LA resident Jon Voboril, in his 1916 Lancia. Voboril’s navigator jumped ship in Ulaan-Bataar, leaving Jon to drive alone. This he managed to do and kept up with the leaders, a seemingly impossible task. The British organizers disqualified him, claiming the rules required a navigator. Voboril kept going anyway, stealing the show, and earning the respect and awe of his fellows.
One afternoon in Yekaterinburg(Russia)on a slippery road surface, Voboril T-boned a local’s car, badly damaging his Lancia. His axle was bent, as was the frame, and everyone thought he was done. Two locals stepped forward and got his car flat-bedded to the local Volvo truck service center. There, the Volvo employees pitched in to repair the badly bent Lancia, and by 11pm, it was running, ready to take the starters flag the following morning.
Some days later, he drove into Paris, still among the leaders, to an appropriate hero’s welcome. He’ll now drive to Prague, and repair the car properly. Then he’ll ship it to New York for the cross-country drive to Los Angeles. Not bad for a 91 year old car!
Not every driver said they’d do it again, but most of those I questioned said they would!
The Newest Volkswagens
For this trip, I actually met the Peking-to-Paris Race in Koblenz, Germany and followed them up the Mosel to Reims, and on into Paris. I used a Volkswagen Passat Turbo Diesel 6-speed. The 42 mpg economy at 80-90 mph autoroute speeds, plus the comfort, power and silence were impressive.
Recently I also drove the new VW Eos metal-topped convertible. Like the Passat, it was an obviously very high grade car, thoroughly likeable. These Volkswagens seem to belong almost in the premium car class, far above their humble roots.
