cover image Prince Borghese's Trail: 10,000 Miles Over Two Continents, Four Deserts, and the Roof of the World in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

Prince Borghese's Trail: 10,000 Miles Over Two Continents, Four Deserts, and the Roof of the World in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge

Genevieve Obert. Council Oak Books, $23.95 (314pp) ISBN 978-1-57178-085-0

In 1907, the world's first international motor rally took place from Peking to Paris, proving that the motorcar could provide an independent means of transport. Ninety years later, California-based Obert (contributor to Auto Week magazine) took part in a reenactment of the rally. In this account, she parallels her journey with that of two participants in the 1907 race: the Italian Prince Borghese and his co-driver, writer Luigi Barzini (Peking to Paris: Prince Borghese's Journey Across Two Continents, 1907). Though the connections are often incidental, Obert fills her narrative with a charming sense of companionship with her predecessors, almost as if the 1907 competitors were watching over their spiritual descendants. The 1997 race, covering 11 countries in just over six weeks, consisted of 99 teams from 24 countries and included cars dated between 1907 and 1972 (Obert drove a 1968 Hillman Hunter). The competitors' consuming passion for classic cars comes across more vividly than the exotic locales, such as Kathmandu and Istanbul, which are seen mostly in the context of road conditions and repair shops--especially as the miles wear down the antique automobiles. The book's otherwise fast pace slows with the author's introduction of dozens of minor characters. Obert nicely weaves engrossing and highly charged passages (at one point a father-and-son team are killed in a traffic accident in Pakistan) with an old-fashioned adventure. Photos. (Nov.)