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.

The Itala 35/45 HP that won the 1907 Peking to Paris race after covering a 16,000-kilometer route. A legendary achievement.

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.

The 1924 Croisière Noire, also known as the Citroën Central Africa Expedition, crossed the African continent from north to south covering over 20,000 km with 8 half-track vehicles.

Though they are actual races, the Mexican Baja California and the French Paris-Dakar must also be mentioned. The latter began in 1979, with a Range Rover being the first car to reach Dakar — following three motorcycles. The Baja 1000 (a thousand miles), however, began earlier, in 1962, as a motorcycle challenge, though cars soon took over. From 1967 to this day, the Baja has been open to all kinds of vehicles and doesn’t follow a fixed route: the long, narrow peninsula of Baja California doesn’t allow for major detours, so drivers simply choose whichever route seems fastest. Unmissable to watch, extremely demanding to race, the event is now dominated by Ford and GM.

The Baja 1000 held its first car edition in 1967 and has taken place every year in Mexico over a 1000-mile course.

Returning to the Dakar, which today takes place in Saudi Arabia, it has evolved into a highly competitive and promotional showcase for cars, motorcycles, and trucks. A fantastic platform for the vehicles that take part — and win. But what Roarington aims to highlight is the passion for adventure — understood as “We did it!” That’s why we’ll be telling the stories of extraordinary events like the Camel Trophy, or the challenges undertaken by very young drivers in the cheapest cars possible, aiming for Middle Eastern destinations which, unfortunately, have become dangerous today due to ongoing military tensions in many of those countries. Starting today, Roarington.com will recount the most important and celebrated of these adventures — and if anyone knows of others, don’t hesitate to share them with us, and we’ll tell their stories too. Next week: The Camel Trophy.

The Camel Trophy — an iconic adventure held in the most extreme locations on Earth between 1980 and 2000, thanks to Camel and Land Rover.