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The Longest Drive team are about to set off, in an aim to break two world records!

29 April 2015

The Longest Drive team are about to set off, in an aim to break two world records!

A team of intrepid adventurers are preparing to undertake a driving challenge to beat not just one, but two existing records.

The Longest Drive team are planning to drive 12,500 miles for the “North South Run”. Starting in Nordkap, Norway – the northernmost tip of Europe -  they will be driving via London, across Europe to Turkey, and after a short sea crossing, south through Africa and onto Cape Town, before finishing in Cape Agulhas, South Africa, - the southernmost point on the African continent.

They are aiming to break the records for driving North to South in the quickest time and the historic London-–Cape Town record.

The team is made up of Jan Kalmar from Denmark, an advanced driving instructor and team manager in motorsport, Sebastian Bierhalter from Germany who is a car technician but wants to see the world though the front screen of a Porsche Cayenne and Michael Griffith, an ‘adventurer’ who has taken part in several Paris-Dakar rallies.

The team will be driving a Porsche Cayenne and aim to break these records by driving as efficiently as possible with the minimum amounts of stops or time spent out of the car. They had to plan carefully as it is important that the team adheres strictly to local traffic rules at all times. Of course minimising the time spent out of the car means the team will be doing pretty much everything in their car and sleeping is set to be especially tricky -although they have converted the back seat so that it lies (almost) flat.

Jan, who has led the planning for this challenge says:

“As the average speed drops dramatically when standing still, we are not planning any stops when we are underway, apart from refueling. We have to live in the car for the 11-12 days we expect the 20,000km trip to take. The clock is ticking from the moment we leave Nordkap until we arrive in Cape Agulhas. Of course we will be exhausted but we will have a lot of experiences and hopefully two world records!”

To help them verify their times, they have enlisted the help of Nordkapp Visitors’ Centre, the Royal Automobile Club in London and the administrators in Cape Agulhas community administration who will help confirm if they are indeed to be record holders.

This is not the teams first such adventure, having previously set a record of being the first people to drive the longest possible distance inside the same line of latitude in Eurasia. They covered 7,959 miles in five days, 21 hours and 14 minutes.

As so much of the North South challenge will be driven through eastern Africa, the team wanted to do something to give back to a charity working in Africa, and decided to support Farm Africa. They have an ambitious target of £10,000 so if their epic adventure has inspired you, please do send them some encouragement with a donation.

The team depart on Saturday 2 May, will be checking in to London on Monday 4 May and are hoping to finish in South Africa by Thursday 14 May. You can follow their progress at www.thelongestdrive.net

 

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