Camel Trophy

[Scott Brady]

I assume that I am not alone in this, so a thread on the most famous of expedition events is due.



I have an original 1996 Camel Trophy Team USA application, which was never filled out due to my being full-time military at the time.

I also had the great pleasure of spending a few hours with Tom Collins last year. What a well traveled and gracious adventurer.

So, what are your Camel Trophy stories, links, images, books or thoughts?

Here are a few of mine:
http://www.camel-trophy-vehicles.com/
FAQ with years, vehicles and winners
http://www.cameltrophy.co.uk/

[Scott Brady]

[Scott Brady]

Year Location Event Vehicle Support Vehicle
1980 Transamazonica Jeep -
1981 Sumatra Range Rover 2-dr. Range Rover 2-dr.
1982 Papua New Guinea Range Rover 2-dr. Range Rover 2-dr.
1983 Zaire Series III 88" Series III 109"
1984 Brazil Land Rover One-Ten Land Rover One-Ten
1985 Borneo Land Rover Ninety Land Rover One-Ten
1986 Australia Land Rover Ninety Land Rover One-Ten
1987 Madagascar Range Rover TD Range Rover TD
1988 Sulawesi Land Rover One-Ten Land Rover One-Ten
1989 The Amazon Land Rover One-Ten Land Rover One-Ten
1990 Siberia-USSR 200 tdi Discovery 3-dr. Land Rover One-Ten & 127
1991 Tanzania-Burundi 200 tdi Discovery 5-dr. Land Rover One-Ten
1992 Guyana 200 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 200 tdi Defender 110
1993 Sabah-Malaysia 200 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 200 tdi Defender 110
1994 Argentina Paraguay Chile 200 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 200 tdi Defender 110
1995 Mundo-Maya 300 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 300 tdi Defender 110
1996 Kalimantan 300 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 300 tdi Defender 110
1997 Mongolia 300 tdi Discovery 5-dr. 300 tdi Defender 110
1998 Tierra Del Fuego Freelander 300 tdi Defender 110
1999 No Event
2000 Tonga-Samoa Honda Honda & 110 Hi-Cap

[Jonathan Hanson]

What an event the Camel Tropy was in its early years! I still have magazines with articles about the Papua New Guinea event and the Madagascar event. The latter was written by Gary Wescott, who was overtly critical of the many Range Rover differential failures on that run. The trophy Rangies still had two-pinion diffs then and they were popping right and left under the (considerable) strain.

The early trophies were inspirational to those of us who dreamed about taking on genuine expedition challenges.

In the mid-nineties the focus began to change from vehicle-dependent tasks to adventure racing sorts of things - log-carrying and canoe races and such - and even though that ostensibly placed more emphasis on the human factor, I think it was when the trophy lost its uniqueness. Not to mention when they switched to Freelanders - I understand the publicity angle, but puullease!

I think there's a place for a new kind of vehicle-dependent event, one that would return to a challenging point-to-point style expedition, but with a conservation or community development goal towards the end.

Look here:

http://www.camel-trophy-vehicles.com/

[gjackson]

I applied for the trophy in 1992. Unforfortunately I did not qualify for either the US team or the UK team because I was a Brit living in the US. The UK team required residency and the US team required citizenship!

Had some long conversations with Tom Collins during the process, and he is a gracious and knowledgable guy!

cheers

[60seriesguy]

We replicated the '92 route in 1993 and took great pride in the fact that we pushed five LWB and two SWB Land Cruisers beyond the point where the Camel Trophy vehicles had to stop. It was a *wicked* trip, we had one guy go down with Malaria and four of us ended up with dengue fever on the way back. The trucks looked like they'd gone to hell and back, it was the first time I saw a broken birfield on a Land Cruiser with open diffs. Years later, when cutting the crunched-up rear quarter panels on my wagon, I was still finding remnants of the oily red clay that clogged up everything!

My club did it again in 1994 but I wasn't able to make it.

I agree, the Camel Trophy started out as a real 4x4 challenge, but it evolved into a PR event that got slowly diluted over time and ended up incarnating the G4...the early events, however, WOW!

I always dreamed of participating but there was no Venezuelan team and I couldn't represent the US as a non-citizen.

[bootzilla]

There are so many great Camel Trophy shots



That UK site with the Trophys for sale is awesome. When I had my Freelander, I'd contemplate how to get one over here - because if you look at the prices, they aren't all that bad.

There was another shot I loved that they had in the local LR dealership - not sure if it was Camel Trophy or G4 - but the team manuvered a Disco around an obstacle by tilting it up on two wheels, with a couple of guys keeping it from falling over by hanging onto a tow strap tied to the roof rack - that thing was leaning hard. Can't find the pic, though...

[FourByLand]

[The Swiss]

I applied for the Camel Trophies for 1993, 1994 and 1995 for the Swiss Team. I made it to the selections each time, but unluckily never made the cut to the last 16. Needless to say I kept all the memorabilia from my 3 glorious days at Camel Trophy.

I then later on had the opportunity to hone my off road driving skills with one of the "journalists" sitting inn in the Swiss vehicle from '91 through '94. Needless to say he was more a coach for the Swiss Team than anything else. The Swiss won in '92 and scored 2nd in '91 and were 4th in '93, (do not remember '94). I also joined him on two trips, one on old, abandoned military roads through the Swiss, French and Italien Alps, one through the Pyreneese Mountains between France, Spain and Andorra.

What other story related to the Camel Trophy? In my cousin's wedding in '92, there was one guy really hitting on my sister-in-law and he really tried to impress her. I guess it was not all bs he told her as it was him who then represented Switzerland at the Camel Trophy 1993 in Malaysia.

[pskhaat]

It sure would be really cool to have another large corporate sponsored event like this. International logistics are huge and it seems to me the early Camel Trophy got it right in equating all teams by an underlying common vehicle (that part I think is key).

It was always my goal to apply for and do the Camel Trophy, I too am dissapointed it is no longer. I personally think an event that had the same tenets as the early CT would go over well, even if it was just North American based for the time being, leveraging primarily driving and natural vehicular obstacle skills (whilst treading lightly), incorporating teamwork, communication techniques, a maybe a little navigation.

With video media coverage, I think it'd be quite popular.