Book excerpt: The official record of the centenial re-enactment of the 1907 Peking to Paris race. Man and machine against the elements, driving where no car has gone before; That was the impossible challenge of 1907 when a handful of madcap motorists took up the idea of a Paris newspaper to prove that the car could now go anywhere by driving from Peking to Paris. To mark the 100th anniversary of the original "Great Race," over 100 cars set out to drive the original route used by Prince Borghese in 1907.