0003 The Car

Our steed - Ashton's Austin-Healey 100/4

Ashton already had a "suitable" car (Is any car really "suitable" for a journey like this ?)  - a green 1954 Austin-Healey 100/4.  This car was the first model of the "Big Healeys" which enjoyed increasing competition success both on track (Mille Miglia, Le Mans, Sebring etc), and also in Rallies (Monte Carlo, Tulip, Rome-Liége-Rome, etc).  Drivers such Stirling Moss, his sister Pat Moss, Carroll Shelby, the Morley brothers, Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Mackinen and many others all drove Austin-Healeys.  So it has a great history, especially in rallying.

0002 How did we get involved ?

Kyle & Ashton (and others) at Tut Towers, Aberdeen 2002

As with all good stories, it is quite involved, but it is the detail and the coincidences that make it worthwhile in the end.

Ashton Roskill and Giles Cooper first met through ownership of their Lotus Elises when attending a big Elise gathering at a track day at Knockhill in Scotland that was a part of an event call Tut Towers in 2002.

0001 What is the Peking to Paris Rally ?

The Peking to Paris motor race was an automobile race, originally held in 1907, between Peking (now Beijing), and Paris, France, a distance of 9,317 miles or 14,994 km.
The idea for the race came from a challenge published in the Paris newspaper Le Matin on 31 January 1907, reading:

"What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"