AGM

Followed by

Richard Jeffcote

Riding the Phantom through 7 time zones

(Driving a 1930 Rolls Royce from Peking to Paris)

If you had picked up a copy of Le Matin newspaper in France on January 31st 1907 you might have come across the following extraordinary challenge…
“ What needs to be proved today is that as long as 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?”
With this bold statement, the world’s first great endurance rally was born. It wasn’t just about speed – it was about proving that these new fangled motor cars were more than just city playthings. They could go anywhere – even across the then uncharted wilderness between China and France.
Originally 40 teams expressed interest, but when the time came, only five courageous crews lined up outside the French embassy in Peking. What followed was a gruelling 9300 mile odyssey across some of the world’s harshest terrain. Prince Borghesi in a 7litre Itala arrived first in Paris on August 10th 2007. His prize was a magnum of Mumm champagne.
There have been a number of ; repeats of the event since then and the latest started in May 2025 with 65 cars starting. Richard Jeffcoate joined the fray as co-driver in Steve Kiss’s 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom 2. They left the Great Wall in Beijing on 17th May. After many adventures while travelling approx 9500miles, they arrived in Paris some 37 days later on 22nd June. The oldest entrant was a 1910 huge 17 litre American ‘La France’ fire engine and the youngest was from the mid 70’s. On this occasion, in crossing Asia and Europe, the rally passed through 11 countries and 7 time zones
Richard and Steve’s talk will describe some of their experiences on the journey from first deciding to enter to finally arriving in Paris.