What does one do when faced with what is arguably the toughest classic car race of the world? Once the sport of privileged gentlemen and the aristocracy, common folks shied away from races like the Beijing-Paris rally and remained mainly on the sidelines. Watchmaker and jeweler Chopard is certainly not sitting it out and neither are our two intrepid Austrian drivers. For this year’s Beijing-Paris Rally – i.e. possibly world’s hardest classic car race although the Dakar rally is arguably tougher for all classes of vehicles – Chopard was the proud sponsor of the Austrian team as they embarked on the challenge from June 12 to June 17.

Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Chrono

The driver, Ingo Strolz, conquered the race with his co-driver and mechanic Werner Gassner, while armed with their Mille Miglia GTS Chrono. Incidentally, the Mille Miglia is another classic car race that’s no cakewalk either and Chopard is right in the thick of that action too. The car of choice for the Austrian duo was a 99-year-old chain-driven American La France Tourer Speedster, which was interestingly the oldest car of the race. The duo traversed 11 countries, beginning in Beijing and moving through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and eventually ending at Place Vendome in Paris.

Driving through the Gobi Desert.

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“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. Nevertheless, sand and hard shocks made high demands on the watches,“ says Ingo Strolz.

Ingo Strolz and Werner Gassner.

Chopard also interviewed the Austrian team, who revealed the challenges they faced during races, as well as their opinion on watches.

This story is also available in Bahasa Indonesia. Read it here: Chopard Resmi Mendukung Austria Di Rel Beijing-Paris 2016