Le Raid Pékin-Paris

French game commemorative for the race Peking-Paris of june, 1907, the first great car race of the world.

From the french instructions: "A magnificent performace in motoring is surprising both the most skeptics as well the most courageous sportifs. The race Peking-Paris is, indeed, the demonstration of the most tenacious endurance and the most fecund in incidents that have been undertaken so far. This game represents the various steps taken by our valiant drivers and our young competitors can execute, in their rooms and without great danger, this wandering race around half of the world."

The game is composed by pins, balls and a giant 3D boardgame racing track where a small racing car must travel. The play is very simple and has an obvious link with bowling: each player must push (or let it go) the car in the track. At the end of the track the car will hit a basket with balls. The balls will spread over a board with holes, numbers and pins, representing obstacles and its values. The balls will eventually hit some pins and enter a few holes. The player´s score is the sum of the points of every hole where a ball fell.

A copy was available at "Museu do Brinquedo" (Toy Museum) in Sintra, Portugal. Unfortunately the museum closed its doors for good in 2014.