Some used cars are valuable because they have high performance features or valuable badges. Perhaps they are rare and desirable instances where prices have gone up simply because of lack of supply. But what happens when something is simultaneously common, unassuming, and completely unique with a compelling story behind it? This car could be one of them. .
The vehicle for sale is a 1982 Mazda 626, a modest but elegant family sedan. It has gorgeous Terra Brown Metallic paint and a pretty nice set of wheels. Oh, and there are stickers all over it indicating its participation in the 1982 Beijing to Paris Car Challenge. In fact, it's actually painted! This would go some way to explaining why the car reportedly only had 234 miles on it, considering no event took place. It's a gorgeous time capsule of sorts, manual, rear-wheel drive, and on the market for $9,500. If I was anywhere near Ohio, I don't think I would have been able to resist.
This car intrigued me from the start and I had to learn more. I caught the seller's lead, but in the meantime several other clues helped me dig into the backstory of this long-lost Mazda that never fulfilled its true destiny. Ta.
Piecing together the story of the 1982 Beijing to Paris Motor Challenge requires extensive searching of the Internet. Thankfully, there are a smattering of older sources scanned and archived online that offer hints as to what happened. It was to be a long-distance trial from Peking (now Beijing) to Paris, inspired by the running of the first event in 1907. However, unlike the original race, which had virtually no rules, this race was run on a fixed route due to political considerations at the time.
In fact, politics would play a large role in the events of 1982 as well. November 1981 motorsport reported that the Games were delayed from their originally scheduled start in June 1982 because the Soviet Union had not agreed to allow athletes to pass. The February 1982 issue then attempted to dispel rumors that the race had been canceled, with Jerry Phillips insisting it would go ahead as planned. The redesigned route is planned to head west from Beijing through Pakistan, then to Paris via the Middle East or India, although the route has not yet been determined.
Still, despite Phillips' determination, the race never took place, leaving competitors and their sponsors in a bind. This is also a shame, as some of us were planning to take on the last checkered taxi ride in history, with the taximeter running the entire time. The last person to guess the fare wins the prize. But the checker has no action.
In fact, the shiny brown Mazda 626 also wore a cheerful roof basket for its big journey. To find out where it comes from, just look at the sticker on the body. It has a large logo of the Van Ness Mazda dealership in San Francisco, USA. The names of the three drivers are also painted on the side: Michel Cavour, Bogdan Kropocki and Martin Swig.
If this last name sounds familiar, it's because Swig made quite a name for himself in the auto industry. After his death in 2012 at the age of 78, many media outlets reported on him, including: auto week, broke the news of his death. He started a business selling Alfas, his Romeos and Fiats at a dealership in San Francisco. When he struck out on his own, he built a vast dealership business covering all of his 22 different brands. Yes, Swig invented the automall concept as we know it today.
Swig was also good at long-distance rallies. A few years after he participated in the revival of Italy's Mille Miglia, he founded California's Mille Miglia in 1991. He continued to participate and support all sorts of similar events over the years. But it was about a decade earlier that his dealer had prepared a humble brown Mazda 626 for the ill-fated Beijing-to-Paris event.
Swig's plans were documented in the San Francisco Examiner on August 19, 1981. He spoke to the newspaper about his achievements so far with Alfa Romeo and his excitement and anxiety about tackling the difficult route from Beijing to Paris. “I think the real question is, 'How would I feel if I didn't try?'” Swig said. At the time, he explained that he would probably drive a “fairly unsophisticated Japanese car” such as a Toyota Datsun or a Mazda sold at the dealership. A subsequent article published in 1984 lamented that his Mazda was “gathering dust” at the new Auto Center dealership. “Sometimes I look at it and think, 'If that race was…'” he lamented.
Fast forward to today and the car is for sale on Facebook Marketplace. The original paintwork is in excellent condition, so it's easy to tell that this one did not tour halfway around the world in his 1982. The seller reports only 334 miles on the odometer. It's never in perfect condition. There are a few dents here and there, and there are cables hanging out at the feet inside. But in the end it looks very well preserved.
I wanted to know more about this amazing survivor, so I called and spoke to the owner. It turns out they knew Martin Swig personally, but that wasn't how they found the car. After appearing on eBay about 15 years ago, it passed into the hands of its current owner. “Since I didn't meet the reservation amount, I somehow got in touch with the person who was selling it and ended up buying it,” the owner said. “It was a Mazda enthusiast who had it.”
So where was it during that time? “When the event was canceled, Martin pushed it back to his dealership,” the owner explained. “It sat there for a while, but it changed dealers in the mid-to-late '80s…I think that's when it finally left the dealer.” There is a certain amount of time. Judging from the current condition of the car, it seems that it has been treated with great care. In fact, much of the damage is consistent with the car having been in storage for an extended period of time. As you can imagine, it has some dents and bumps from living in a busy dealership garage. “In some of the photos, the car looks a little dusty, [but] It’s actually not that bad when you look at it,” says the owner. “Scratches and dents are caused by people leaning things up or sitting on them.”
Modifications to the car have been made on a small scale to allow for long-distance driving. “There's a huge handmade gas tank stuffed into the trunk, which is kind of cool,'' says the owner. “It's a little crude, but it serves its purpose.” There's also a giant basket on the roof, meant to carry additional cargo or spares during the intended journey. “The upper basket is welded to the roll cage via four struts that pass through the roof.” While that may be ideal for track use, it's not really a race-spec installation. do not have. “It has a roll cage with no side guards… They were worried about rolling over and hitting things. They weren't worried about someone hitting them.” The back seat was also removed. A bucket seat was installed in its place. This is not surprising, considering that the passenger capacity of this car is 3 people. It is likely that the remaining space was intended to be used to carry more reserves.
This car has served its owner well in a fairly limited capacity considering it only has 234 miles on the odometer. As for them, their mileage was “probably 50 or 60 miles less than they are now.” Part of that is because the owner used the Mazda to teach his daughter how to drive a stick shift. “I bought it because it had a cool story, it belonged to a friend, and it had nostalgic value,” the owner explains. The mileage remains low because the owner owns many other cars and drives them frequently.
What's impressive is that the car still runs perfectly fine and starts as soon as you turn the key. “It's a very easy car to drive,” says the owner. “Mechanically, it's basically a stock unit… The engine is probably a JDM unit that gives it a little more power.” It may not have been a high-performance engine, but in any case, the event from Beijing to Paris was not about speed. “Such events do not require much force. Reliability and simplicity are required.”
It was also said that the car was rust-free, the engine worked “like new” and the transmission shifted “perfectly.” That's easy to believe considering the condition of the car. And in a way it's wild. Because there aren't many other 1982 Mazda cars in such great condition today.
Now, $9,500 is nothing. Your money can go far if you know where to look. For a little more, you could get a clean vintage Prelude or his V10 TDI VW Touareg. Both are perfect enthusiast cars with their own charms. The 626 may be quite expensive in its own right, but these cars almost never exist anymore. Especially if there is such a story behind it. Oh, and the wheels too! Don't forget the gorgeous wheels. Anyway, you need $1000 or $2000 there.
To be honest, I'm a little shocked that I'm not in a position to get this car. Because this car sounds like a really great enthusiast vehicle. It's a manual rear wheel drive, the wheels are in bad shape and I can't wait to rack up the miles and spend my day in the sun. Not to mention its amazing story. It's easy to see why the current owner was attracted to this car. She won't come to my house, so I hope she goes to a good home.
Image credit: Facebook Marketplace
