Driving the Silk Road

As a boy, I was fascinated by cars. I knew every make and model, even the most obscure ones (Lea-Francis, Armstrong Siddeley, Sunbeam-Talbot). My childhood bookshelf was full of books about cars, and I had a great many die-cast toy vehicles. Motorsport interested me, especially endurance races and rallies, from Le Mans 24 Hours to the Monte Carlo Rally, in which a colleague of my father from West's Piling, Vic Elford took part with great success. At the time, I'd read Look and Learn magazine each week, and here I read about the 1907 Peking-to-Paris motor-race, presented as a illustrated story over several issues. This was something vastly more inspiring than the regular saloon-car racing or rally cross on Grandstand each Saturday! The notion of driving primitive vehicles across the Eurasian landmass, largely without any infrastructure or external support, gripped my imagination. One summer I recreated the race making little cars from Lego, complete with spare tyres, tow-ropes and petrol cans, and pretending the vegetable patch in the back garden was the Gobi Desert.

The Peking to Paris was brought back to life in 1997 as an endurance rally for classic cars, retracing the 16,000 km route of the original race. The seventh recreation of the original race was held this year, with over 100 cars, all built before 1977, taking part. Among them was the 1958 Bentley S1 entered by brothers Doug and Mike McWilliams. Now, regular readers might remember Doug McWilliams as author of The Flat White Economy, which I reviewed back in March. Doug and I worked together at the CBI many years ago, so I was delighted to hear that he would be taking part in such an inspirational event - perhaps the greatest challenge of man and machine in the classic-car world.

The McWilliams brothers' Bentley was one of only 21 cars (of 106 starters) to make it across the finish line on Place Vendôme under its own steam - the rest retired or had to be 'flatbedded' on rescue vehicles. Although the Bentley had been thoroughly prepared, the hammering it received in the Gobi Desert and Siberia meant that much went wrong along the way. It's overcoming those frequent issues with fuel pumps, fuel lines, electrics, tyres etc that make the Peking to Paris so challenging.

Below: a colour plate from the book - cresting a pass in the Gobi Desert.

A result of the journey is this book - a book that's vastly more than a chronicle of 36 days on the road (and off-road) in an old car. It's also a book about geography, history and economics. For the rally's route follows the old Silk Road, and the route of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Doug tells a lively global economic history of how China had been greatly advanced compared to medieval Europe, but fell behind as the Reformation unleashed the potential of industry and commerce, and is now rapidly catching up - but in decades rather than centuries. The book is crammed with observations. One I particularly like is how to measure comparative GDP of a country by eye. Look at the people doing the most menial jobs - are they emaciated or well-fed? Are they clothed in rags or well-dressed? Look at the shops. Are they well-stocked, suggesting rapid turnover of goods? And what are people buying - staples to keep body and soul together - or consumer electronics? Next look at cars and infrastructure - and then finally property.

The term 'Silk Road' ('Siedenstrasse') was first coined by German explorer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen (the Red Baron's uncle) in 1877. How the Chinese are now expanding their trade routes westward along the path of the Silk Road is a major theme of the book.

The biggest single beneficiary of the BRI is likely to be Mongolia. By 2040 its economy is expected to grow by over a quarter just from the direct results of BRI investments. At the moment, Mongolia, sandwiched between China and Russia, is growing at a rapid pace because of the exploitation of its mineral wealth. This will have negative environmental consequences, and changes to the lifestyles of its nomadic people. Doug and Mike witnessed Central Asia in a state of transformation.

Starting in Beijing, the route went through Hohhot, (a Chinese city most readers have never heard of yet with a population of 3m is much larger than Warsaw!), through Mongolia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, back into Russia, through the Baltic states, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France.

Apart from the cars - a wonderful miscellany of classics mostly from the US, Great Britain, Germany and Italy, many over 80 years old - the portraits of the drivers themselves were fascinating. From enthusiasts carrying their own equipment to billionaires spending millions of dollars to win, with their own teams of mechanics able to airlift in complete engines. As Doug says, there were competitors eager to win at any price, and those, like himself, for whom success is getting the car across the finishing line without having to be towed or carried.

No other part of the route tested the cars like the Gobi Desert. The organisers of the rally said that once the drivers got out into the wilderness, a 'red mist' descended in front of their eyes as they could finally unleash their machinery for a blast through the desert. This battering sorts out the solid cars from the ephemeral. The McWilliams Bentley had 'colonial spec' suspension - something that Bentley offered to owners out in the bush, far away from the smooth asphalt of imperial London. They chose the S1, with a six-cylinder engine, over the S2 and S3, which were V8-powered, because the cast-iron lump dating back to the 1920s had powered a whole generation of military vehicles that served in theatres of war around the world.

A Porsche was written off after being rolled six times. An Alfa Romeo was swept away in a river. From Day 7 of Doug's diary: "Mike drove 50 km in the dark across the desert last night with no brakes at all." The engine stalled towards the top of the hill and the car started running backwards - Mike had to put the rear end into a ditch to prevent a catastrophe.

[An aside: riding my two older custom motorbikes, admittedly nowhere near as old at the McWilliams' Bentley, but still 17 and 15 years old, as I travel around rural Poland, I have developed an almost supernatural bond with them; willing them on, willing them not to break down, feeling gratitude towards them when they get me there. With old machinery - anything can go wrong, no matter how well looked-after it is, no matter how well prepared you are.]

The winner of this year's rally - and winner of three of the last four rallies - was Australian driver Gerry Crown, who is 87. An encouraging thought - being a world-class competitor at such an age.

The world's economic centre of gravity is moving relentlessly eastwards. This book should rid the reader of any preconceived notions about China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia, by showing how they are changing at ground level. "But the biggest surprise was Russia. I had expected something like Glasgow in the 1960s. Instead we saw a pretty modern state with updated infrastructure and the gangsters at least hidden from display. If you are worried about Russia, you should be even more worried, because they look to be combining their ambitions with competence... What is clear is that the past dominance of the West has ended an we will have to live in future with a very different world."

For the generalist interested in world affairs, economics and classic cars, there could not be a better read this Christmas. I could write far more about this book, so fascinating it is, but I would not like to spoil it for you - I thoroughly recommend it.

This time two years ago:
Snapshots of Lublin dressed for Christmas

This time two years ago:
The best of Warsaw's Christmas illuminations

This time four years ago:
Changes on ul. Baletowa

This time five years ago:
UK migration - don't blame the Poles

This time six years ago:
Jacek Hugo Bader's White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia

This time eight years ago 
Thoughts upon the death of the Dear Leader

This time nine years ago:
Global warming or climate change?

This time ten years ago:
Progress along the S79