Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,802
Only two got through ...!
On August 10, 1907, the Italian Prince Scipione Borghese ...
... after driving 16,000 kilometers as the first participant in the first long-distance automobile race Beijing-Paris, which started exactly two months earlier, on June 10th at 8:00 am in the Chinese capital ...
... in Paris over the finish line ...:
What the man and his co driver have achieved is almost unimaginable!
They even managed to get their "Itala" car, which had collapsed along with a Siberian bridge, back on the road!
The "Itala" is in the museum today ...:
On August 30, 1907, 20 days after Borghese, the second participant in the race reached Paris:
It is the US-American Charles Goddard who drives an automobile of the Dutch brand "Spyker" ...:
Much of Goddard's backlog is due to the fact that he ran out of money on the way - and had to beg for every new tank of fuel for his car!
The "Spyker" with the eccentric red-white-blue paint job, which was supposed to deter muggers, is still there today ...:
Borghese, Goddard and their co-drivers are the only ones of the 40 participants in the race that started in Beijing to compete with 39 cars and with a "Contal" motor tricycle set off...
... who even make it to the finish!
On August 10, 1907, the Italian Prince Scipione Borghese ...
... after driving 16,000 kilometers as the first participant in the first long-distance automobile race Beijing-Paris, which started exactly two months earlier, on June 10th at 8:00 am in the Chinese capital ...
... in Paris over the finish line ...:
What the man and his co driver have achieved is almost unimaginable!
They even managed to get their "Itala" car, which had collapsed along with a Siberian bridge, back on the road!
The "Itala" is in the museum today ...:
On August 30, 1907, 20 days after Borghese, the second participant in the race reached Paris:
It is the US-American Charles Goddard who drives an automobile of the Dutch brand "Spyker" ...:
Much of Goddard's backlog is due to the fact that he ran out of money on the way - and had to beg for every new tank of fuel for his car!
The "Spyker" with the eccentric red-white-blue paint job, which was supposed to deter muggers, is still there today ...:
Borghese, Goddard and their co-drivers are the only ones of the 40 participants in the race that started in Beijing to compete with 39 cars and with a "Contal" motor tricycle set off...
... who even make it to the finish!
