On Friday morning at 5 am, two British drivers got into a Land Rover Discovery 3 outside the RAC Club in Pall Mall, London, and set off on a 10,000 mile drive to Cape Town. Experienced endurance rally drivers Robert Belcher and Stephen Cooper, both in their fifties, are hoping to beat the current world record of 10 days, 13 hours and 28 minutes, set in February of this year.
The drive will encompass thirteen countries – England, France, Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – and will take the drivers through volatile areas where they could be seen as potential targets for bandits or worse, but the risk is taken in the name of a good cause. They are undertaking the drive in order to raise money and awareness for charity Farm Africa, which aims to help African farmers grow themselves out of poverty and end hunger.
The team’s aim is to complete the drive in under ten days, which will require an average speed of 42mph, 24 hours a day. To accomplish this, they will have to keep stops to a minimum, so one driver will rest while the other drives. You can track their progress on their website which has a map updated every fifteen minutes with their current location.
This monumental journey has been completed by many adventurous drivers over the years; the first successful attempt in a small car, by Cameron Gilg and Walter Kay, was in a Morris Eight convertible back in 1933, taking 158 days to travel from Liverpool to Cape Town.
The British-built 2005 Discovery 3 they’re driving has only a few modifications – sump and undercarriage guards, chunkier tyres and roof-mounted lights, as well as extra fuel tanks to give them a 1200 mile range between refuel stops.
The Discovery 3, however, was described by Forbes as one of the “least reliable luxury cars” of 2006, so the team may find themselves in need of a few spare parts. Here at CWS, we are experts in 4×4 salvage and can offer a wide range of Land Rover, Range Rover and other 4×4 parts, so whether you drive your 4×4 a few miles or a few thousand, we can help you keep it on the road.