1903 Paris to Madrid – The Race to Death
…We ask this question of car manufacturese in France and abroad: Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Paris to Peking by automobile? Whoever he is, this tough and daring man, whose gallant car will have a dozen nations watching its progress, he will certainly deserve to have his name spoken as a byword in the four quarters of the earth… – Le Martin in January of 1907
The story begins with that infamous newspaper advert, in the Paris based publication, Le Matin, which read:
