The Mission


The Peking to Paris Rally is a recreation of the 1907 challenge issued by Le Matin, "Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?"
The 2016 version will follow a route of 13,695 Km (8,510 miles) and take 35 days. We are travelling in Rhubarb and Custard, a 1936 Buick. We know nothing about cars or rallying.

Thursday 9 June 2016

Buick

As regular readers know, our car is a 1936 Canadian built Buick 40c made for the South African Market.

Buick is the oldest US car brand having been founded in 1899 by the Scotsman David Buick. He sold the company in 1904 to William Durant who turned it into the number one US car manufacturer and Buick was the cornerstone of General Motors which is the largest car company in the world.

In 1907 Buick signed a licence with the Canadian firm McLaughlin and that's how our car came to be built in Canada. The British Royal family owned several Buicks and George VI toured Canada in a Buick in 1939.

Curiously our first taxi ride in Beijing (see picture above) was in a Buick.
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