On 23 June 2025, the two teams of the "Beijing to Paris Motor Challenge" from Switzerland, as well as two more from Austria, were ceremoniously welcomed at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne by Hanspeter Durrer's organizing team. 37 days of exertion are in their bones.
The 160 participants (drivers and co-drivers) not only experienced wonderful landscapes on their journey through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and France, they also had many sleepless nights behind them.
No rest
The car runs and stops every day, or rather every hour, just like the 1931 Ford of the two Lucerne Carlos Rieder and Stefan Roth.
The car was built for such poor roads, as there were hardly any better ones at the time, but not for the high speeds required in today's rallies.
Improvisation
Glue and adhesive tape can be a great help, not only when something is no longer holding as it should, they can also solve completely different problems. In the Ford, for example, the interior door trim is very rough, as the driver's knee is constantly scraping against it, there is a risk of chafing.
In the Ford Escort, the driver was dazzled by the chrome windshield wiper, a standard black adhesive tape also helped here ...
Carlos Rieder, also called "Speedy Gonzales" by a Dutchman, said that you have to be a bit crazy to drive 15,000 km in such an old car.
The seating comfort leaves a lot to be desired and there is no air conditioning, so above all it takes a lot of stamina from both man and machine.
Work at the track and at home
Every team has to screw, weld and replace parts, some a little more, others a little less. The only problem with the dog bone was the clutch, which sometimes had to be driven 3000 km without it, but the well-dimensioned gearbox of the Thirteen Hundred withstood the strain without any problems.
It's not just a battle on site, the base at home also has to be ready non-stop to organize new parts and transport them promptly to the next stage destination, where they can then be replaced, which logically triggers a lot of paperwork.
Helpful people
Once again, everyone was unanimous in their enthusiasm for the helpfulness and hospitality of the local population along the way. "The guys were working on our cars for half the night or all night and didn't even accept a tip, even though they had nothing themselves - that was absolutely impressive."
It was only logical that some money was always left on the "workbenches" everywhere....
The "influencers" must be going to extremes in China by now. They followed around 80 cars from petrol station to petrol station to create the latest posts. In some cases, they are even said to have replaced the co-drivers for several kilometers. This shows just how much enthusiasm there is for all cars in China.
The main thing is to arrive
The goal is and remains to arrive in Paris, right from the start in Beijing. The ranking is a completely secondary matter from the start.
At least the Ford won its class, even if only two of the eight cars saw the Eiffel Tower in the end.
