Peking to Paris road trip

SMOOTH RIDE: Whanganui export Jan Sinclair and wife Anne enjoy a sealed leg of the Peking to Paris rally between Omsk and Tyumen in Russia in their grunty 1971 5.7L V8 Holden Monaro.

A former Whanganui man and his wife have just completed the ride of their life.

Jan and Anne Sinclair raced in the 2016 running of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, one of the most demanding rallies ever dreamed up.

For outsiders it is almost akin to taking a leaf out of the book of cartoon characters Dick Dastardly and Penelope Pitstop from the Wacky Races or the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days featuring Phileas Fogg.

The Sinclairs ended the race in 17th place overall and 8th in their class driving a completely rebuilt 5.7-litre 1971 V8 Holden Monaro. The cost of petrol alone must have matched the GDP of a small country in such a powerful machine.

Jan Sinclair is the second of four sons born and raised in Whanganui by Rod and Molly Sinclair. Rod was a well-known car wrecker and dealer in the 1950s and early 1960s with a business in St Hill St and other properties around town, including a large warehouse that stood where the infamous Wanganui Computer Centre was later built. It is now known as Wairere House on the corner of Somme Pde and Bates St.

Rod later moved to Surfer's Paradise in Australia where Jan and wife Anne live today.
Longtime friend of the late Rod, Ted Coutts, still keeps in touch with the Sinclair lads.

"Jan prepared for this rally sometime ago," Coutts said.

"About 18 months ago he bought the Monaro and stripped it down to the last bolt and then rebuilt it with this rally in mind including two manifolds, one for good tracks and one for the tough rides.

"The rules of the race was that you had to carry all your own spares, tools, tents and supplies, but with a maximum of 200kg. Jan said his tools and spares alone weighed 180kg. I shudder to think how much the entire exercise cost, but it was the adventure of a life time and they had a relatively smooth journey throughout the rally unlike many other teams."

The 2016, 6th edition of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge started from the Great Wall outside Beijing on Sunday, June 12 and finished 36 days later with a drive into Paris to cross the finish line in Place Vendome on Sunday, July 17.

The cars were divided into two age categories - either in the Vintageant category for pre-1941 models or the Classic category for models in production before 1975. The 15,000km route included driving some of the worlds toughest terrain.

For this year, the 2013 route was enhanced with drives into the most adventurous region of Mongolia, the stunningly beautiful northern sector and then across into Russia and on to the Republic of Belarus with the support of the Russian motor-federation who worked with rally organisers to seek out long gravel farmland sections used for time trials. The final stages included an exciting new route across Europe with closed-road mountain climbs in the Alps.

Kiwi ingenuity was to the fore in this year's rally.

Overall winners were Timaru father and son Bruce and Harry Washington competing in the Vintage class in a 1929 Chrysler 75 Roadster.