Adventurer and all round crazy German, Rainer Zietlow, will attempt to drive from Cape Agulhas to Nordkapp in northern Norway… in 10 days. And we’ll be following his progress with daily updates.
Starting tomorrow at 10 am, Zietlow together with long-time teammate and cameraman Marius Biela and the UK’s Sam Roach, will set off on their 19 000 km odyssey they have called “Cape to Cape 2.0”. It will take them through a total of 19 countries, among them Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt and Zimbabwe. They’ll have to fly over Syria though, as its borders are closed.
Zietlow’s 2014 attempt from Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas – Cape To Cape 1.0 – was truck by disaster after a low-speed head-on collision in Tanzania meant a two-week stop for repairs. After fixing the Touareg, he and his team carried on to South Africa to complete the journey… and then decided to turn around and drive back to have another go at the record.
The car
It’s a VW Touareg 3,0 TDI with a standard engine and drivetrain. There are slight modifications to the suspension because of the vehicle’s bigger tyres, a roll cage and racing seats have been fitted, as well as a host of electronic navigation and communication equipment. Importantly, there’s also a massive additional tank located in the back that gives the car a range of up to 3 000 km.
The strategy
Breaking the world record will not be about speed – they will keep within each country’s speed restrictions and on open roads not exceed 130 km/h. Instead, it’s going to be all abut keeping stops to an absolute minimum – ie fuel, food and toilet stops – and drivers will swop seats every five hours.
Zietlow knows exactly what’s required having already set several distance driving records that include from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska and from Melbourne to St. Petersburg.
We will be carrying daily blogs, images, and video that Zietlow will be sending us on the fly. So as they say… watch this space.
