Autos August 8, 2006, 2:05PM EST

Hit the Silk Road

The Amsterdam - Beijing Classic Car Endurance Rally 2006 is a stunt conceived to unite China with the West, metaphorically and automotively

by Aili McConnon

It's a case of marketing that goes the extra mile—or 10,874 extra miles to be exact. A curious caravan of 84 classic cars is currently snaking its way though 14 countries en route from Amsterdam to Beijing, retracing part of the historic Silk Road, the ancient passage that for centuries served as the main overland commercial artery linking the West to the East.

The cars include old Bentleys, Mercedes (DCX), and Alfa Romeos, emblazoned with logos of sponsors, including the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Hyundai, and Chinglish, a new bilingual Web portal. China's leading TV sports channel, CCTV-5, is broadcasting daily updates of the Amsterdam-Beijing Classic Car Endurance Rally 2006. Dutch and British TV crews are also tailing the cars and showing the play-by-play on RTL7 in the Netherlands and North One in England.

$64,000 ADMISSIONS PASS

The rally is the brainchild of Jan Vermeer, a retired Dutch entrepreneur who formerly owned a watch trading company in Hong Kong. Now he has changed his focus to classic cars, organizing 22 rally events in the past seven years and participating in countless others.

Vermeer spent the last three years planning the Amsterdam-Beijing Rally because, as he says, "I wanted to broaden my horizon, and that got a bit out of hand. The result is a gigantic journey." The transcontinental route connects the sister cities of Amsterdam and Beijing.

Eighty-five cars, ranging from 30- to 52-years-old, were entered at a cost of $50,000 € (approximately $64,000) each. They left the Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam on July 15, the 400th anniversary of the painter Rembrandt's birth. On the first day, a team driving an Alfa Romeo Zagato Junior crashed and found itself stranded on the Dutch-German border. "Two years of preparations, including a mental coach, and a bucket of cash down the drain," lamented Marius van Bergen, CEO of rally sponsor Chinglish.

LANGUAGE LINK

The remaining teams continue to travel more than 434 miles a day through the challenging terrain, which ranges from "narrow mountain roads in East Turkey to the vast and sandy Gobi desert in China," says Vermeer. Those teams that drive closest to the prescribed average daily speed earn points, and the winner will receive a trophy, though no cash prize.

So, most teams are in the race for the sight-seeing journey through 26 cities. "The rally leads to countries and regions where it seems as if time has stood still," says Vermeer.

There are 300 million Chinese trying to learn English and 30 million English-speakers trying to master Chinese, according to the People's Daily. That explains why Chinglish's van Bergen helped sponsor the rally. As the race physically links the West and the East, he hopes to bridge two major languages of commerce, English and Chinese, through his bilingual Web portal, due to launch on Oct. 1.

START YOUR PINYIN.

While some use the term "Chinglish" to mean speaking a blend of Chinese and English, van Bergen decided on the name because it linguistically connects the two languages. His Web portal will use the bilingual format found in many glossy magazines and newspapers in China: Chinese runs down one side of the page and English down the other side. "I wanted to create something more interactive and flexible, and an Internet portal was perfect for this," he says.

Chinglish will provide instant translation of words and phrases between English and simplified and complex Chinese, as well as a toolbar with functions for pronunciation, definitions, and transcription to pinyin, the use of Roman letters to represent sounds in standard Mandarin. Chinglish will also build a wikipedia to create a bilingual language-learning community.

In the meantime, Chinglish is generating advance buzz through the rally cars decorated with its logo. The classic autos reached China on Aug. 1, and several team's blogs report periodic breakdowns including failing oil pumps, rear axles, shock absorbers, and tires.

BALE OF CHALLENGES.

One pair, driving a 1956 silver Bentley SI, had a near-miss on Aug. 4. Otto van Blaricum and Paul Giesen were driving from Hami to Dunhuang in northern China and wrote the following on their Web site: "Today we managed to miss a tractor with an enormous hay bale on top plus wife and child which crossed the road just in front of our noses—literally."

Provided no more major mishaps occur, the teams will end the nearly monthlong odyssey on Aug. 11, 2006, when they roll into Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

To see images of the race, click here.

McConnon is a correspondent for BusinessWeek in New York.