The Great Automotive Adventures Everyone Dreams of Doing

Today, television offers us fake “impossible” challenges where teams of contestants must face nature and unpredictable twists in order to win. These are shows as gripping as they are visibly designed to maximize audience ratings — yet the car still always plays a role. It’s therefore interesting to look back at the true origins of this idea and explore the most important events that took place across different eras. Without a doubt, the first event powerful enough to be broadcast by media around the globe remains the famous 1907 Peking to Paris race — when roads, as we understand them today, didn’t even exist. 16,000 kilometers during which the victorious Itala 35/45 HP revealed the potential of what would become the century’s most transformative revolution: the automobile.

Africa played a key role in many of these adventures: in 1924, Citroën organized a raid from Algeria to Mozambique involving half-track vehicles across a 20,000-kilometer route. The all-French challenge resurfaced after the war: Renault successfully launched an adventure for young people eager for any challenge, offering vehicles — the legendary Renault 4 — to those with the best exotic travel proposals. Its name: “Renault 4 on the Roads of the World”. A huge success to which Citroën responded with its 2CVs tackling truly incredible and seemingly impossible African expeditions.