Hermann Layher drove his open-carriage 1907 La France Hooper for hours through an icy rain before abandoning it and taking shelter in a yurt. Luckily for him, Jeremy Barker, a member of the rally's support crew, found Layher's ancient convertible abandoned on the roadside. Barker walked to the small rawhide tent nearby and found Layher inside. He was delirious, stripped to his skivvies and gesticulating wildly. Layher, who had taken refuge with a family of Tibetans, apparently was suffering from hypothermia. (Layher's teammate, Jorg Holzwarth, had abandoned the car hours earlier and hailed a ride with a passing bus).

A typical Tibetan tent in the region

Layher was hospitalized, but after treatment he rejoined Holzwarth and the La France in Koko Nor. The team plans to continue with the rally, top-less car and all.

After driving by stained concrete apartment houses and smoke stacks early in the day, we emerged from the ubiquitous thick brown smog into a region of clear rivers, golden mounds of hay and jagged peaks. The roads on the 300-mile drive from Lanzhou to Koko Nor ranged from newly paved to muck.

At one point a Chinese tour agency vehicle working with the rally lurched off the road, injuring three guides. After the Qinhai police finally responded to pleas for assistance, they merely gaped at the wrecked auto. Then the officers stood by impassively and -- when one of the guides refused to move -- giggled.

The Chinese police and other officials have kept drivers (and us) guessing since before the rally began. In the days before leaving Beijing, for instance, our status changed hourly as we tried to secure a spot in the rally for Drew, our photographer, and Mike, our sound producer and technical expert.

Due to a series of mistakes, only my name appeared on the official rally list. And that was a big problem in a country where official lists can be next to impossible to alter. Our fate ultimately seemed to hang on the whim of an elusive petty bureaucrat named Mr. Ma. But our only way to reach Mr. Ma was through a 20-something bureaucrat accompanying the rally, who we call Open Wound (he introduced himself by pulling up his trousers to reveal the raw sores on his leg).

The view from Chris's tent

On the eve of the rally, Open Wound told us that Mr. Ma would meet with us at 10:30 p.m. I was stuffing my guide books and running shoes into my backpack when Open Wound called back: Under no condition should Drew or Mike meet Mr. Ma. As the only person on the rally list, I should be the only one present.

I got ready. Ma never showed. So the next morning, Mike, Drew and I left for the Great Wall, where several Chinese officials read speeches about friendship and openness. Then we got the official word: Mike and Drew were expected to remain in Beijing to apply for "permissions."

Unsure of what these permits were, or how to obtain them, they have instead been traveling incognito, shadowing the race in a local cab and meeting me for late-night upload sessions in a nearby hotel.

Rally Update: Chic and Arlene Kleptz returned to Lanzhou after the drive shaft of their 1919 Marmon konked out again. A lovely couple, both they and their car will be sorely missed. A similar fate befell David and Adele Cohen, whose 1930 Stutz M Lancefield coupe, one of the most beautiful cars in the rally, had to return after suffering electrical problems. The number of the cars in the rally is down to 90.