Thanks to the efforts of a Richmond garage a pair of road rally adventurers completed the Peking to Paris Motoring Challenge 2013 last month.
Stephanie Recavarren of Juan's Auto Service said the Vancouver father and son duo of Gary and John Anderson earned a bronze medal in their category after piloting a 1930 Ford Model A Cabriolet through 15 countries and 12,247 kilometres of demanding terrain.
"Their car held up really well," Recavarren said, "although they did run into some problems near the end on some of the steep hills in Austria. But they managed to complete it and their time was very good."
The rally started May 29 in China and finished at Place Vendome in Paris on June 29.
Recavarren said Gary, a 75-year-old commercial real estate owner in Vancouver, said his Model A suffered the least mechanical problems than all the other entries in the pre-1941 vintage category, but were ultimately undone by the Austrian topography.
"Whatever everyone was telling them before they went about how hard the conditions would be, John said it was 10 times worse," Recavarren said.
Some of the modifications the Richmond garage made to the Model A included a secondary fuel tank, GPS equipment, four-point harnesses for both driver and navigator, and a more robust suspension on the rear wheels.
Plans are to ship the car back to Canada and have it worked on at the Richmond shop. Recavarren said she is very proud of the work the garage performed to get the Model A rally ready.
"It was awesome," she said, adding that following the Anderson's progress on the Peking to Paris website gave her goosebumps. "Not only because we were part of it, but it was the spirit that they both had driving so far. At one point they had to drive for 25 hours. They did a great job."
