LAP of the MAP
AGAINST CONVENTION (AND TO MINIMISE CYCLONE EFFECTS ON ROAD CLOSURES), WE CHOSE TO RUN ANTI-CLOCKWISE.
SIX DAYS, 16 HOURS and 27 minutes, to be exact – that’s how long it took us to drive around this vast country in our marathon Ford Falcon XD.”
These exact words appeared in Modern Motor, June 1979, when Matt Whelan and Evan Green reset the quarter-centuryold record for a drive around Australia on Highway 1. It stood for more than 25 years, until April 2, 2004.
Twenty five years and six days after the last attempt, on Thursday March 25, 2004, at 4am, MOTOR set off to do it all again. But this time it was to be with two cars, more spares and better roads: just under 15,000 kilometres on Highway 1, with drivers sleeping in shifts and scheduled stops only for fuel.
Those selected as enthusiastic and masochistic enough to make a Commodore SS sedan their home for a week were deputy editor Jesse Taylor, news editor Dean Evans and freelance photographer Thomas Wielecki aboard Car One, nicknamed the ‘Red Rocket’.
Aboard the ‘Silver Bullet’ – cruelly dubbed the “support vehicle” by those in Car One (they preferred “Car 1a”) – were columnist Paul Cockburn, logistics mastermind Marcus Hofmann, and UK-import, do-everything guy John Mahoney.
BP jumped in as a partner in the endeavour, ensuring all our stops were met with good fuel, food and drinks, while Telstra offered up a pair of satellite phones for around-the-country coverage.
Against convention (and to minimise cyclone effects on road closures), we chose to run anti-clockwise. With Taylor J and Hofmann penning out a scheduled plan
