The best way to celebrate 2000?
A trip around the world in 80 days with vintage cars.
How can you resist such a proposal?
We said yes right away.
We start from the Tower Bridge in London, closed to traffic from the night before. Great "street party" reserved for competitors, mechanics, sponsors and friends. The field of membership is really a "parterre de roi". At the start there is the prince Idris Shah (next king of Malaysia) with the rare Ford Chevrolet "Fangio" coupe 1940; and a deployment of means and men out of the ordinary: Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Aston Martin... In short, the best the world over the last ninety years. Two Italian teams: the Sicilian Francesco Ciriminna, with its incredible Fiat 1100 convertible '48, and us with the Lancia Flavia coupe '64. We have already done, with the same car, the Beijing-Paris in 1997, managing to finish the raid. We expect 33,000 km of rugged adventure that we will tell you in this website.
The previous one dates back to 1908 , the raid was called Coupe du Monde and was attended by six brave crews, one of which Italian, led by journalist Antonio Scarfoglio, son of Edoardo and Matilde Serao . According to some historians, it was their car, a very Italian Zust , the real winner of the event. They departed February 12 under a terrible snow from Times Square, arrived in Paris in September. It was not a complete trip around the world, but it was a grueling race, full of twists. The first half ride was dominated by the U.S. crew, aided by the fans, by the heads of the railways (which make pass in the tunnel only the American Thomas Flyer) and by the organizers who did not applie for them , transported by a train for a long stretch, the regulation that they apply, on the contrary, to the German Protos who lost the first place.
In the cockpit of Vagabunda we have crammed (in addition to luggage , medicines and spare parts) digital video camera and notebooks, the satellite phone for live links, the laptop to send articles and photos. A travelling mini drafting, in perspective and with the ambition to be reporters and memorable protagonists of an enterprise, the longest race in the world.
