Day#77: Kim's Star Struck!

14SEPT13:

Kim's favorite Movie STAR!

A new car perhaps? 

Day #74: JWR Automobile Museum

11SEPT13:

This fellow we met on the highway, he was in the 2010 Peking to Paris.

Here we are with John Rich (the third) at his family auto museum in Penn., wow what a museum.

Check out the their Website HERE

Enjoying a little Chinese hooch with friends. 

Check out this collection.

Day #70: The Beginning to the End ...

07SEPT13:

So begins the next leg of our journey starting in Halifax and taking us across Canada back to Edmonton, this should bring the the total mileage to 15,000 miles... 

New friends already! Char & Art

Art's Boat

Kim and Len's potential Pirate Ship 

Check this engine OUT

Day#33.1: And still to come ...

26JUL13:

Well the first & second parts of our journey are history;

Edmonton to Vancouver THEN Peking to Paris

About 9000 miles so far. 

Our old Chevy, which we fondly call our fat old girl friend has worked great other than a broken track bar in Mongolia which forced us to break out the lawn chairs & beer for a couple of hours. It was not so bad, Monte & Phil arrived in their Chrysler Airflow with lunch & gratefully shared lunch in exchange for cold beer. 

Other than that, a turn signal flasher & an oil change got us to Paris. The whole adventure ( ENDURANCE RALLY )which is very true, had us up most mornings at 6.00 am, most days ended late as the bar was always full & alive with stories of the day. 

The day we arrived in Paris was surreal, didn't know whether to happy or sad. Anyways we arrived to a huge crowd of onlookers,friends & family got out of the car drank champagne, lots of congratulations amongst the teams, passed the keys off to Cars UK & walked away ( sure hope they picked it up ). That evening at the ball dressed to the nines in our best we were presented with the spirit of the rally award. I guess our attitude, our willingness to help, our trunk full of parts & tools, the cold beer had something to do with that. We were truly honored.

The next leg of our journey will start in Halifax hopefully the middle of Sept & will take us across Canada back to Edmonton, this should bring the the total mileage to 15,000 miles. Anyways we are looking forward to the east in the fall & meeting more people along the way.

-Kim & Len

We have two months to prep up for the last lag of Kim and Lens Greatest Adventure .. YET

Amsterdam -56 days later -  time to go home (stupid reality)

Day#33: Troyes to Paris ..SPIRIT OF THE RALLY!

29JUN13

7000 miles to see this sign

Arriving in Paris 

The FINALLY! The best 32 day party we have ever been on

But the party isn't finished .. yet. Spirit of the Rally GOES TO .. Guess who?

Our smiles just say it all! The most amazing time with incredible people. A perfect way to end off the rally.

"Whistles blew… someone sounded a trumpet… and everyone clapped. The survivors of the Peking to Paris drove through the streets of Paris this morning – down the Champs-Élysées with girls in white T-shirts on roller skates escorting cars across traffic-lights, shoppers and children on the pavement stood and stared… then cheered…drivers waved back.

The final few kilometres in the middle of Paris is no place to break down, but everyone was helping everyone and to loud cheers from a big crowd, survivors rolled over the finish line in Place Vendome. So ends the 2013 Peking to Paris – crossing 15 frontiers, driving the greatest land-mass between two capital cities and the biggest wilderness in the world where a car can turn a wheel. It’s also been an awfully big adventure.

Every driver who made it into Paris this morning to collect a finisher’s award can count themselves a winner. Tonight, 150 silver-plated trophies will be presented in a gala awards dinner. The cups are waiting, the special menus printed, bottles of wine are being set down on the tables… and the crews who have met up with loved ones and family for the first time in over a month are getting ready for one helluva party.

“It’s been terrific, and the best organized Peking to Paris so far, a wonderful route, wonderfully put together,” said Gerry Crown, winner of the Classics Category sitting in the sun on the roof of his old Leyland P76, beaming. He should know. The 81-year-old driver who has beaten drivers half his age to win for a second time is the only one here qualified to judge the organizing-team… he has driven all previous ERA Peking Paris events since the first retrospective in 1997. “Now I’m looking forward to a long bath, a long beer, a long meal with my mates… and I’m looking looking forward to Tibet for the next one.”

Worthy winners of the Vintageants category are Phil Garratt and Kieron Brown driving the same Chevrolet Fangio Coupe that was victorious on Peking to Paris 2010, in a perfect demonstration of careful planning, fine driving and meticulous attention to detail. Check out the results pages for the full classification.

With a total of 584 guests preparing to dine at the celebration prizegiving dinner tonight, here in the sumptuous surroundings of the Intercontinental Hotel, the organizing is not quite over…. but almost.

Peking to Paris Rally Report

Day#32: Gstaad to Troyes

28JUN13

Welcome to France ... 

Cam Oils .. Keeps our old girl purrrring

"With around 86 cars expected to cross the finish-line in the centre of Paris tomorrow out of the original 96 starters, there is a terrific atmosphere in the bar tonight as competitors breathe a big sigh a relief that it now looks as if the survivors take in liquid refreshment for the struggle to get out of Troyes tomorrow on the final leg.

Doubts? There is only one. There could not be a last minute drama without Bill and Mark from Car 15, the Ford Model A, taking centre-stage. Today the water pump they found in the wreck outside the Victoria Hotel in Davos gave up… and so the car was sadly put on a truck to Troyes. The crew of car 7 have donated a water pump, so Bill is back in optimistic mood that he will be driving across the finish-line under his own steam. By now, he knows all about steam-power.

The atmosphere in the bar is as you would expect after an amazing month on the road, driving almost half way around the globe, crossing two Continents and the biggest single land-mass between two capital cities that has seen a full east to west crossing of the World’s greatest wilderness.

The only crew not yet in the bar is car 15… the sweep mechanics are waiting for the Ford Model A on its truck to arrive so it can set out tomorrow with some 85 others"

Peking to Paris

Day#31:Davos to Gstaad

27JUN13

Low gear & very slow for these straight up and down passes

Switzerland passes ... yes that's snow

Hans & Malcolm - Just two great guys 

Arriving in Gstaad

Hotel in Gstaad: Brand new & great! 

Our accommodations in Gstaad 

The ladies of the RALLY

Cocktail Reception in Gstaad 

"We drove across an alpine mountain range to Gstaad today. Just as we thought we had seen every kind of extreme weather condition, we drove up a foggy mountain and found it was snowing at the summit.

Bill and Jock Burridge from New Zealand in their 1925 Buick had just about the worst problem of the day when a front hub broke on the last closed-road test-section… the hub was stripped down and a local workshop found to weld it up, and the car was soon running again. Snow was falling and visibility was down to 15 metres.

Glen Duthie in the big black 1939 Cadillac La Salle, car 33, cooked the brakes on a mountain descent, and they were not alone… Rhys Timms and James Stone in the big 1936 MG SA also had issues with no brakes, overheating causes failure of the oil-seals. Andy Actman driving one of the sweep-vehicles reckons it was just “routine problems” and welding up a hub and coming across cars with no brakes was just a typical day.

Our day ended in Gstaad and two very fine hotels, and our supporters, Bonhams, Britain’s leading auction-house, provided a champagne reception which turned into a noisy part prior to a lavish meal, it was steak-night in the Palace Hotel. Everyone was in high spirits and looking forward to the final drive to Paris. First of all there is the rest of Switzerland, with Franco Lupi and his friends in the Swiss Automobile club intent on making sure the pressure is maintained. Our next stop is the medieval town of Troyes in France… south of Paris. There is a terrific atmosphere within the event this evening, and Troyes promises to be turned into one big party

… it’s been hard work all round. Just because everyone senses Paris doesn’t mean to say the route has to turn into a cruise, and the Swiss Historic Racing Club are here tonight, they have worked with Kim Bannister on our final sting in the tail before France. It’s not over, certainly not until Bill is singing with an ice-cold beer in his hand in Paris… along with the rest of us."

Peking to Paris Rally Report