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The 7th Peking to Paris Rally starts on June 2nd in Beijing. The route covers 8,700 miles over 36 days, taking the competitors through China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan and then back into Russia to St Petersburg. From Russia, the cars drive through Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Belgium and finish in France on July 7th.
Two Tuthill Porsches are taking part: the 1956 Porsche 356A of Renée Brinkerhoff, co-driven by Calvin Cooledge, and the 1973 Porsche 911 rally car of David and Susan Danglard. David’s car has been fully prepped here at Wardington for Peking to Paris. The avid rally fan from California is looking forward to his next Porsche adventure.
“After buying my first 911 ten years ago, I fell completely in love with these cars,” says David (main pic). “A dream soon emerged to see the world through the windscreen of a 911. When we were looking for a Porsche to take on great adventures, this car was an obvious choice because of its history: having been driven by Björn Waldegård, the McRae family and so many other rallying heroes on lots of events in Tuthill ownership.”
“Our ambition is just to go around the world with it. I think it’s been through seventeen countries so far in our ownership and it had done at least five more before that, including taking part in the Safari Rally. We’ve already signed up for events in another twenty countries, so I guess it will have been through fifty countries by the time we reach the end of our current programme.”
The couple have a large Porsche 911 collection, spanning cars from 1964 to 1974. Each car has a different character and gives a unique driving experience. The Danglards’ love of driving covers both work and play. After moving from France to America several years ago, David and Susan put everything on the line to start a karting business in 2003. Their company – K1 Speed – now owns 33 branches running all-electric karts. K1 also has several franchisees and more facilities coming on stream all over the world, giving David and Susan even more reasons to travel in the storied 1973 rally car.
