In mid-December of 1922, Citroën had what it called “the audacity” to attempt to drive motorized vehicles across the Sahara. The drive south across the African desert to Timbuktu (English spelling of the historic stop on the medieval trading route) covered nearly 1,970 miles and 21 days.
On February 5 during the Retromobile collector car celebration in Paris, Citroën announced that it would send not only two replicas of the five original half-track vehicles, a Golden Scarab and Silver Crescent, on a centennial re-creation of the trip, but that also making the drive would be a fleet of standard-production electric vehicles.
Citroën stand at Retromobile 2020 in Paris
The “E.Pic” drive is planned for December 19, 2022, to January 7, 2023, and the support vehicles will be from the 2022 model year production range. Citroën also promised that present at the starting line will be a new futuristic concept car.
A reproduction of the Golden Scarab is on display at the Citroën stand at Retromobile 2020. The vehicle was built by students and teachers from French arts and crafts schools as part of the Citroën centennial celebration in 2019.
The Citroën convoy crosses the Sahara in 1922
Each of the five Citroen half-track vehicles had a nickname for the original journey: Golden Scarab (Scarabee d’Or), Silver Crescent (Croissant d’Argent), Flying Turtle (Tortue Volante), Sacred Cow (Boeuf Apis) and Crawling Caterpillar (Chenille Rampante).
The original plan for the 1922 adventure was to leave the vehicles in Africa, but the trip went so well that the teams decided to drive the vehicles back to the Mediterranean coast.
1922 map from the Citroën archives
This article, written by Larry Edsall, was originally published on ClassicCars.com, an editorial partner of Motor Authority.