Books
Camel Trophy, the Definitive History
NICK DIMBLEBY, Porter Press International, £60, ISBN 978 1 913089 37 5
Land Rover is so irrevocably associated with the adventure competition known as the Camel Trophy that it comes as quite a surprise to learn, early on in this substantial hardback, that the very first event, held in Brazil in 1980, was dependent on locally built Ford U-50 Jeeps. These 1950s-style vehicles were not ideal for the particularly harsh conditions they (and their crews) were exposed to, and none is known to survive.
The Camel Trophy came about because West Germany had banned tobacco advertising on television, and the maker of Camel cigarettes needed another way to promote its products to European consumers. Hence the idea of a gruelling off-road trial that would epitomise the macho character of the mythical ‘Camel Man’; an
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