The 2022 Peking to Paris Motor Challenge will begin on Saturday 28th May 2022, under the shadow of the Great Wall of China reaching its terminus in Paris on the 3rd July. This will be the 8th incarnation of the event, faithful to it’s legacy, as it’s global reputation continues to grow.

Across 37 days, one more than the 2019 edition, the two person crews and their classic and vintage machinery will battle the terrain, elements and their own powers of endurance to reach the finish, undertaking one of the last true adventures available in an ever-shrinking world.

Organisers aim to add more exciting competition sections with navigational challenges true to the events tradition, culminating in a final route section that could prove to be a sting in the tail for some weary teams.

The Peking to Paris is a truly international affair, with entries expected from across the globe including the US, China, Russia, Australia and all of Europe, competing across the world’s largest landmass in a wonderful spirit of international cooperation. 2022 will, in the very greatest spirit of this event, challenge and reward those who receive confirmed entries and build upon a successful 7th edition in 2019.

Records broken were broken then, the completion of a Hat-trick of wins for Australian Gerry Crown. Anton Gonnissen rewriting history by finishing the event on a pioneer trike 112 years after Auguste Pons failed to finish in 1907 and Mitch Gross breaking the distance record for a Veteran steam driven 1910 White Pullman car. Entries for 2022 open today, but with 700 expressions of interest already, the 110 spaces will likely fill up fast!

The 2022 edition of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge will see the reinvigoration, rather than reinvention of one the world’s premiere endurance motoring events.

Route coordinator and deputy clerk of the course, Chris Elkins said “our aim is to provide a tough and challenging event throughout the 37 days and also take in some new territory. The winning cars and crews will surely be tested to the limit, it is an endurance rally after all. However if your aim is simply to make it to Paris, participants can be confident that our organisation will provide excellent logistical, medical and mechanical support to help you rise to the challenge.”

More time will be spent in Mongolia. A favourite amongst the competitors and those watching at home and one of the loneliest and remote territories on the planet, the country will host the rally for more days than in previous editions. The rally will also spend more time travelling through the vast landscape of Kazakhstan, travelling the width of the country in a giant loop to the north of the Caspian sea before the transition from Asia into Europe, via the Caucasus Mountains and the Olympic city of Sochi, now home to the Russian Grand Prix.

Europe has often seen the rallying give way to concentration runs, with the better infrastructure paling in difficulty compared to the roads that have come before in Asia. This time though the route planners are determined to add a sting in the tail, with much more challenging routes as the crews that remain travel up through Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, up through Italy and across the Alps into France.

Many important historical sites will corridor the route, a fitting guard of honour for those still in the running, striving for their own place in history amongst the very few who have gone before. More recent motoring history will be considered as well, as the route plans to take in some of Italy’s most famous racing circuits, which have become and will always be part of motoring history, just like the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.

The Peking to Paris Motor Challenge 2022 is shaping up to be one of the all-time classics, with a route more than worthy of carrying the famous title.