Chopard and the Rallye „Beijing – Paris“

Chopard is proud to have supported this year the Austrian team during the Rallye „Beijing – Paris“ which took place from June 12th to July 17th. 

This race is recognized as the hardest classic car race of the world. 
The pilot, Ingo Strolz, took the challenge together with his co-pilot and mechanic Werner Gassner. Starting number 2 in Beijing, the two Austrian pilots wore a Mille Miglia GTS Chrono for the race.

They drove the oldest car of the race – a 99 years old chain-driven „American La France Tourer Speedster“, 14,5 l cubic capacity and 140 hp at top speed of 150 km/h. The rallye started in China, went through 11 countries like Mongolia, parts of Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, 
Hungary, Slovenia, Italy as well as Switzerland and finally arrived in Paris on 17th of July on Place Vendôme. The travelled distance of the race reached 13.695 kilometers and lasted 35 days. 

Both drivers have participated already in 2013 and also achieved to finish the race. 
„ We both participated to the race in 2013. It was a good experience and we have learned a lot. Most of the time we had only 3 – 4 hours sleep per night because after the daily stage there were repairs to do on the car as well as maintenance works“.

The race is an extreme challenge for humans and machines, in the Gobi desert there are no streets, only sand tracks and it is hard to navigate. Our car does neither have a tachometer nor a GPS or any other devices. Timing is very important to us”, says Ingo Strolz. „Nevertheless, sand and hard shocks made high demands on the watches“.