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“What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?” Le Matin, newspaper, Paris January 31, 1907
With its history of running moonshine, the Shiner knows a thing or two about border crossing. What was left of the 1940 Ford Coupe was shipped from Michigan, USA, to England and, after a total overhaul – including the reconstruction of its V8 engine that was found in a bog in Ireland – the Shiner was sent to Beijing and is now ready at the start line. As for his drivers Michelle Jana Chan and Mike Reeves, the challenges they face in undertaking arguably the world’s most epic classic car rally, will put every aspect of their partnership and relationship to the test.
“We will have to be everything to each other,” begins Mike, “Mechanics, navigators, parents”, “racing car drivers ”, chimes in Michelle, “… even lovers,” she offers, almost in a whisper.
First undertaken in 1907, the Peking to Paris Rally is more of an endurance test than a race – its original competitors, who included the Italian Prince Scipione Borghese, had to navigate entirely off road without maps, rules, passports or garages en route. There were only camels available to transport the petrol required to complete the Mongolian grasslands crossing. They were all vying for the prize which today remains the same – a magnum of Mumm Champagne and the glory. The second race was 90 years later in 1997, and now continues at seven-year intervals. On May 28, 2013, the fifth race in history will begin with 100 competitors crossing nine countries over 12,227 kilometres in 33 days. The rules and the route have changed but the key elements of the transcontinental race remain the same.
Epic in scope, racing from east to west, traversing the Great Wall, the Gobi Desert, with ten of the 33 days completely off-road as they cross Mongolia, onto the Russian Steps, over the Urals, into Bratislava, onto Salzburg winding through the Alps via Gstaad, to Place Vendome, Paris. Everyone begins the race with a gold medal, but one false move and they can be relegated to silver, then bronze, with no opportunity to get it back. To enter the race you have a historic classic car that was made before 1974, and there are a number of different categories.
“We have entered the pre-1942 category. We just picked a car that we thought would be incredibly strong and made it even stronger. This race does break cars – as well as people.”
Michelle was working as a journalist in China during the mid-90s when she first heard about the Peking to Paris Rally, but failing to secure sponsorship and the commitment of a co-driver to race across Mongolia in a pink jumpsuit, she has since been seeking the perfect partner for this race. As fate would have it a mutual friend thought it was high time his two best friends, both intrepid travellers, met, and over a glass of wine in a bar in London the deal was sealed with a high five.
Michelle, who has her own show, Insider Guide, on BBC World News and writes for numerous titles, such as the Daily Telegraph in the UK, has found the perfect partner in Mike in more ways than one. Having studied car design in Pasadena, California, Mike is meticulous about restoration. He recently designed and launched a limited edition of the Aeroboat, which uses the legendary Rolls Royce Merlin Engine that powered the Spitfire. “The night that Parker introduced us – I had been harbouring this in my soul for years – now here was a yacht designer who used to study cars, and the cogs started wiring.’ So I told him, ‘I may not have done a rally before but I’ve got my PPL I can navigate by the stars – you want to do this with me!” It was a moment of total synchronisity, as if all their wishes on a star were aligned.
“We looked long and hard at all the different car options. The winning cars for the previous rallies have always been Chevys and, in my typically contrary manner, I didn’t want to do it in a Chevy.” Again Mike is talking about winning which I am finding very compelling. “We really thought about what the best way to win this might be and we did not want to start with a car full of compromises.”
Enter Danny from Michigan who was going to turn this car into a hotrod, “it was just a perfect rolling shell with no chrome nothing on it – totally bare – a blank canvas.” First produced in 1932 to replace the four cylinder, The Ford V8 was a mass-produced, inexpensive but very fast car adored by bootleggers. Shiner 38, a 1940 Coupe with a V8 flathead engine, the preferred getaway car of Bonnie and Clyde. Clyde wrote to Henry Ford “… even if my business hasn’t been strictly legal, it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V8.” In car terms, Shiner is “a sleeper” – it looks like a perfectly normal car on the outside but on the inside you have a tuned-up engine, and the back seats are full of whisky.
The engine has to be a period engine, and as luck would have it, the leading specialist in flathead Ford V8 engines is here in the UK, about 40 miles away from Mike’s office on the south coast. They had to find glass, headlights, gear boxes, back axels, in addition to the whole engine – a ball of mud found in a field in Ireland. “Essentially all that we could reuse was the engine block. Now, with new pistons and new cranks, it is a beautiful factory correct flathead V8 engine. “The car is a symbol of all the elements we like to have in our boats. We started with something that is really very old and we have taken it back to first principles and built it to do a very specific job, which is to …,” he pauses briefly, “win this race. But not just win it in a very engineering focused way, but in rather stylish bespoke way.”
This is a literal vehicle for the sponsors Claydon Reeves, Abercrombie & Kent, Pacific Prime and Garmin to showcase all their values and what they represent as a brand. As well as being very safe, Shiner now has a roll cage, and tuned up within an inch of its wheelbase, there are all sorts of additional design touches throughout the car’s exterior and interior that go beyond its mere functionality, like the artwork that Mike designed of a Chinese Dragon and a French Cockrell for the exterior. “I just wanted to use this opportunity to showcase the fact that this is fun and yes it is a racing car but the endurance should not compromise on the enjoyment and aesthetics.” Sounds to me like he has understood one of the fundamental components of a lasting relationship: keep the magic and romance alive.
As a journalist another key element to the success of this trip is integrity. “I wasn’t out to persuade Mike about this, I needed him to say ‘I want to do it’ because our relationship is going to be made very public,” Michelle tells me in her disarmingly candid way. Over the course of the 33 days she will be doing four episodes for her BBC insider’s guide and photo journal for Conde Naste Traveller. We will be getting a very intimate view of their relationship. “There is a penguin on the dashboard that belongs to our daughter and the deal is when one of us is pissed off with the other we bash the penguin to let them know.” Clearly their strategies for winning extend to their strategies for staying together.
This is going to be a very different kind of documentary from other celebrity led transcontinental trips caught on film. Michelle is a reporter and expert on China, in addition to being an intrepid adventurer. So we should be spared the inane and uninformed comments and given valuable insight into their journey and the land they are racing through. She is ideally positioned to turn this into some excellent content. “I really hope that we can be insightful into the rally, the journey, and really hope we can add geographical, historical and a cultural context too.” They are the youngest team by a long way, but she has made one thing very clear to all her editors, “none of this is going to impact my position in the race: if we are making an editorial choice over a car choice, the car will win every time.” With all this talk of winning, I was surprised to learn that one of their key race tactics is keeping a measured pace. While it will be almost unbearably tempting to line up at the start line and go full throttle they would break the car. There is a great Fangio quote that says, “You have to win the race at the slowest pace you can.”
Together, for the last six months, the pair have been down at a workshop in Poole – under the car, in the car, on top of the car “with this incredible hot rod couple, Jim and Julie”, who have taught them to rip this car apart and put it back together again.“I do think that we are in a decent position to win this thing – although there are some pretty serious rally entrants like Mario Illen. In the end the Luckiest person wins, so we’ll try to make as much luck as we can – but I feel pretty lucky!” Well you would if you had found the man of your dreams while pursuing your dream. Expectations always differ wildly from reality.“One of the things that we are doing is trying to keep our expectations low in terms of the cars performance. We do expect to be changing wheels and fan belts and I am just hoping we don’t have to actually get the welding torch out,” says Michelle. “It is about maintaining a sense of fun and adventure – and rather than just imagine it is going to be trouble free, being prepared to face the challenges.”
One thing is very clear, whether or not they win this particular rally, they have all the ingredients for a winning partnership, and in the end that’s all that counts. I will be meeting them in Paris on June 29 to find out.
by Nico Kos Earle
For more on the Peking to Paris Rally here and on Facebook You too could meet Michelle and Mike in Paris. Abercrombie & Kent are holding a competition for a two night stay at the luxurious Four Seasons George V: To celebrate the culmination of the Peking to Paris Rally, concluding with a sprint up the Champs-Elysées to Place Vendome on June 29, Abercrombie & Kent have teamed up with theFour Seasons George V to offer you the chance to win a two night stay, including breakfast, at this iconic hotel. To enter the competition, please go here Follow Michelle Jana Chan and Mike Reeves and Shiner Car 38 on: twitter @pekingparis2013 and instagram @pekingparis2013 Posted: 28 May 2013