79 Land Rover

Camel Trophy Events and Destinations

Year	Destination	Vehicle used	Winning Country
1980	Trans-Amazonican Highway, Brazil	Jeep CJ-6s	Germany (the only country to compete)
1981	Sumatra, Indonesia	2-door Land Rover Range Rovers	Germany (the only country to compete)
1982	Papua New Guinea	2-door Land Rover Range Rovers	Italy
1983	Zaire	Series III 88"	Holland
1984	Brazil	Land Rover 110	Italy
1985	Borneo	Land Rover 90	Germany
1986	Australia	Land Rover 90	France
1987	Madagascar	Range Rover Turbo Diesel	Italy
1988	Sulawesi	Land Rover 110	Turkey
1989	The Amazon	Land Rover 110	UK
1990	Siberia (USSR)	Discovery 3 door 200 Tdi	Holland
1991	Tanzania/Burundi	Discovery 200 Tdi	Turkey
1992	Guyana	Discovery 200 Tdi	Switzerland
1993	Sabah-Malaysia	Discovery 200 Tdi	USA
1994	Argentina, Paraguay, Chile	Discovery 200 Tdi	Spain
1995	Mundo Maya	Discovery 300 Tdi	Czech Republic
1996	Kalimantan	Discovery 300 Tdi	Greece
1997	Mongolia	Discovery 300 Tdi	Austria
1998	Tierra del Fuego	Freelander	France
2000	Tonga-Samoa	Water based event	South Africa     

Camel Trophy History 1980 - 2000

(Pangaea-expeditions.com)

Camel Trophy. At one time considered the last "great adventure" was an annual vehicle based 4x4 competitino undertaken annually from 1981, and by boat in 2000. Its purpose was to voyage into harsh lands and put man and machine to the test. The first Camel Trophy, held in 1981, was a trip on the TransAmazonian highway under taken by a group of Germans in Jeep CJ6s. Despite not finishing the trek, it captured the imagination of adventurers across the world. The following year, and every year after until 1998 they used Land Rovers to complete their journeys.

 

Nearly every year, the organizers of Camel Trophy sought to challenge the competitors with a new and different destination, often times being the first ever vehicle traverse of a given route. However frequently it was not enough to just do the expedition, the masachistic minds behind Camel Trophy decided to do many of the routes durning the regions monsoon or rainy season. Take for example the 1985 event in Borneo when participants frequently were only able to travel a distance of 5 km a day despite being behind the wheel all day long and long into the night.

 

Throughout the duration of Camel Trophy, the full range of Solihull's finest vechilces were challenged, starting with the Range Rover in 1982, to the Series IIIs, 90s and 110s and the Discovery in the early 1990s.The final competition vehicle was the Freelander which participated in Land Rover's swan song event in 1998, Tierra del Fuego.

 

By the last years of the event, the focus had drifted away from the vehicles and towards "adventure sports" and special tasks such as kayaking, canoeing and mountain biking. Partially for this reason, Land Rover and Worldwide Brands (the owners of Camel Trophy) decided to part ways after the 1998 event, Tierra del Fuego.

 

However, the true spirit of Camel Trophy is kept alive by Land Rover enthusiasts everywhere. Limited edition coffee table books celebrating the event frequently sell for hunrdeds of dollars, if you can find them. The Camel Trophy Owners Club, a group dedicated to the ownership of ex-Camel Trophy vehicles also keeps the event alive with their documentation and celebration of the great adventure. Their vehicles range from Defenders to Freelanders, from well used competition vehicles to well-cared for marshall vehicles.

 

For a more in depth look at the vehicles and equipment which participated in the Camel Trophy, please see Alex's excellent website Camel-Discovery.com and it's companion website Camel-Defender.com

 



Camel Trophy Kalimantan 1996, Defender 110

 

http://www.pangaea-expeditions.com/galleries/cameltrophy/index.html

Land Rover used in the Camel Trophy competition

History of Land Rover

Land Rover series III

A nice shade of green

Old Land Rover

Very interesting shade of green. I like that Africa logo on the door too.

71 Range Rover off-roading in Morocco

Interesting red color.

91 Trooper with a pop-up tent on the roof

91 Trooper

Notice the scorpion and N-1575 painted on the back.

Something military perhaps?

Nissan full-length commercial "Pathfinder On Safari"

So back in the mid-90's this Nissan Pathfinder full-length commercial was available for free on a VHS tape.

I sent away for it, if I remember correctly I sent in some type of post card order form that I probably got out of a magazine, and it came to me in the mail.

And even though these actors are "on safari" no more than I am right now sitting at this computer, I thought it was such a cool commercial and I used to throw it in my VCR and watch it all the time.

89 Trooper

These Trooper photos might be a regular thing on the blog here for quite some time now.

Another Trooper

1999 Isuzu Trooper

I bought a 1999 Isuzu Trooper yesterday. I took a chance on it because it has only 119k miles.

It has a little bit of body damage but nothing major. I'm hoping to get it to look as good as this on someday.