The Peking-Paris Rally of 1907 proved once and for all that the automobile was more than just a toy or a passing fad, but a means of transportation with extraordinary potential. The Itala, a prototype motorcar in a world without roads, managed to cover even the toughest legs of the trip in a third of the time it took the traditional camel caravans: one week instead of twenty days.

The car marked a turning point in our history and is now so commonplace that it is hard to imagine a world without it. But like any other benefit, there is a price to be paid, and in this case it is very high. Cars may have changed our lives, but their emissions are causing irreparable damage to our world. Pollution, the greenhouse effect, climate change, global warming: we hear these words spoken more and more often by a chorus of scientists exhorting us to change our way of life. We need less cars, motors that are better for the environment, and innovative ways of restoring the balance.
 

In celebrating Itala, the doyen of motorcars, we cannot avoid taking a position on the important issues raised by use of the automobile. We will therefore be focusing on road safety and making a tangible as well as a moral commitment to the environment. To balance the emissions given off by the caravan, we will be planting thousands of trees, so that the Itala can give back the oxygen it consumes: the Itala will be participating in LifeGate’s Impatto Zero® project. The mobility of the cars travelling the Paris – Peking route will be Impatto Zero® - Zero Impact: their carbon dioxide emissions will be compensated by reforestation of a growing forest in Costa Rica.