Restore means returning an old car to the condition it was in when new — bringing it back.
There are plenty of classic cars so gleaming you would never guess the engine, the seats and the bodywork are decades old — but the insistence on keeping the “original” as a record of its era differs between Japan and abroad, and I feel that difference, with no judgement of good or bad, is part of the appeal of a classic car.
But that takes real strength and no small amount of hardship, and because the restoration is being done with an Englishman, there is also the friction and anxiety of a different set of values from Japan.
Does a hundred-year-old car really run?
This time’s challenge car: a 1929 Buick Doctor’s Coupé.
Pre-war, roughly a hundred years old — and yet this car finished the last event, in 2019.
It has entered all sorts of rallies at home and abroad; some ran over 1,000 km. But to finish the unknown 14,000 km of this challenge, a serious amount of energy has gone into maintenance and replacing parts.
Over ¥17 million in preparation costs!
The Buick originally cost ¥3.5 million to buy. Since it finished the last Peking to Paris, it has been kept, overhauled and test-driven entirely in England.
But the longer Covid delayed things, the more the cost mounted, and the total so far now runs to over ¥17 million. Invoices have arrived, month after month, and the days have carried real anxiety over a challenge whose end is still out of sight.
Not being able to visit England at all for these two years, working entirely at a distance with the English side, I have felt the difference in how the Japanese and the English think about old cars, restoration and what “original” should mean.
A crack in the engine block, requiring an overhaul.
All the electrical wiring harness replaced with new. Every ancillary component overhauled. The gauges overhauled, with new ones added where needed.
The wooden wheels overhauled.
A one-off roll cage added for safety. The seats were bought in Japan and I shipped them over myself.
A one-off fuel tank built to a safe design. The spare tank replaced too, to remove a source of leaks.
The exhaust, badly inefficient from being cobbled together out of mismatched pipe diameters, was also replaced entirely.
Costs still to come
Beyond what the car itself needs, this challenge also requires:
· The remaining ¥5 million of the Peking to Paris entry fee
· ¥3 million for travel and entry to the ten-day Sahara Challenge, the mandatory warm-up rally
· ¥2 million in travel, insurance and other costs to ship the Buick to Spain
· ¥3 million in travel, insurance, satellite phone and other costs to ship the Buick from England to China for Peking to Paris itself
There was a world I could not see until I took this on.
One year remains, and then the 37-day challenge that follows it — and I am sure many more walls are still to come.
But I will not give up. I will keep going, so we can all see a view none of us has seen yet. Your continued support means a great deal.