Bob hits the road from Peking to Paris

A North East entrepreneur will take to the road next month as he competes in a month long motor endurance race from Peking to Paris.

Bob Fountain, owner of the Aston Workshop in Beamish, will be taking part in the Peking-Paris Motor Challenge starting on 27 May 2007. Bob and his team mate Joseph De Giorgi will join 100 participants from all over the world as they drive the 12,000 miles from Peking to Paris in a restored 1934 Lagonda M45 Tourer.

The challenging Peking to Paris Endurance Race initially took place in 1907 and was won by Prince Borghese of Italy. The 34-day race is the only trans-continental competition which covers the greatest distance between two capital cities and will involve a ten day stretch with no fuel or water crossing Mongolia. The Lagonda M45 Tourer is being restored and prepared substantially to its original specification as an exemplar of the skills and expertise at Aston Workshop.

The race will start from Tiananmen Square in Peking (Beijing) before heading through the Gobi Desert and into Mongolia. The route goes through Russia and into Kazakhstan then North West to Moscow. The teams will then head out to St Petersburg, through Estonia, Poland, Germany and into Paris on 30th June 2007 for the prize giving gala-dinner at the Continental La Grand Hotel.

Bob said: “This is my dream race and I’ll be driving my dream car so I am very excited to be taking part. I can’t wait to drive the restored Lagonda M45 Tourer on this route and I have to thank the team at the Aston Workshop for carrying out such a good job. We will be crossing some very inhabitable terrain and the atmosphere should be incredible especially as the race is taking part exactly 100 years after the start of the first race.”
media release

The original race was held in 1907 following a challenge published on 31 January 1907 in Le Matin newspaper in France.

There were forty entrants, but only five teams ended up going ahead with shipping the cars to Peking. The race was held despite the race committee cancelling the race. In the 1907 race there were no rules except that the first car to Paris would win the prize of a magnum of Mumm Champagne. The teams drove the 12,000 mile route through country where there were no roads, or road-maps and camels were sent to various stations along the route to give fuel to racers.

The Aston Workshop in Beamish recently opened its £500,000 paint and body workshop. The 20,000 square feet facility has the latest technology and equipment to restore and repair any Aston Martin to the highest standard. The centre has room for 18 working bays and is one of the best equipped, purpose built facilities in the UK.

The Aston Workshop, Red Row, Beamish, County Durham DH9 0RW Tel: 01207 233 535 www.aston.co.uk.