HOW FAR CAN YOU GO IN 24 HOURS?

HERE at Leisure Wheels we tend to come up with some crazy ideas. In an effort to portray and test vehicles in a unique way, we are always looking for something different to do with the ever-increasing flow of new models that make their way into our parking lot.

During one quiet afternoon spent trawling the internet, we realised there was a bit of a hole in the list of world driving records. There are the normal land speed records across a variety of surfaces but not much pertaining to off-road driving. For example, there was no record for the furthest distance driven off-road. While this would not mean much to most people, it meant only one thing to us: we had to set a record.

The furthest possible distance driven off-road in 24 hours is dependent on a number of factors. What is the definition of off-road driving? Does it mean gravel roads or trail driving? South Africa has an extensive network of good gravel roads and we could have easily found a route that would have allowed us to average over a 100km/h and clock up well over 2 000km in 24 hours. But we wanted a real challenge. We settled on a sand-driving route. We thought this would give us the best of all worlds. It is real off-road driving because you need a proper 4×4 with low-range and a diff lock. We also figured the sand would be a bit kinder to the vehicle than a rocky 4×4 trail. And as it goes in the record-setting business, we