3 Minis 10 countries

[X30YES]

An Adventure or what,from South Africa to Oxford (http://www.mini2.com/article358-mini-odyssey.html)and the 8000 mile journey (http://www.miniodyssey.co.za/)

[N12 JLK]

Superb , now that would have been good. excellent post:cool:

[Sweeney]

yep, they didnt break down once either

[zimbo]

...its going to be a long drive back home. :D

That must have been an amazing trip. I'd love to do something like that, either in a car or on a bike like Ewen McGregor & Co did a couple of years ago:p

[Crombers]

Amazing stuff :approve:

[X30YES]

Some guy did the Artic Circle as well in a Mini :eek:,will look for it and post later

[X30YES]

Cooper S Works on a non-stop rally to the Arctic
This Rally has three non-stop legs. Finish in the Netherlands is Saturday the 11th after which each team will have driven approximately 7000km @ temperatures of -25 to -40 C.

Route:
1) Holland - Finland (3000km)
2) Arctic Circle: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Finland (1000km)
3) Finland - Holland (3000km) -> via Norway or Eastern Europe
We were sent by coordinates to find our way. All in all Team Cooper S Works had the least amount of kilometers, only 6890km in 6 days. Lap top in the car; two gps systems.
First non stop stretch 2950km and go! Everytime we received new coordinates the moment we arrived at a previously supplied coordinate. This was possible because the organisation physically could spot us! We also had to stop otherwise they did not grant us the new coordinate.

The second stretch took us from Akaslompolo in Finland via Sweden to Norway and back. We started at 0800 and finished 0330 the next day, a stretch of 1600km through the worst road surface I have experienced ever. Roads where now and then -22°C through to +5°C, very slippery. If we used the cruise control in 6th gear for accelleration from 70 km to 90 km the traction control kicked in. The Cooper S Works was the only small car.

In the evening we slipped at 110km/hr. We bounced from snow wall to snow wall, then came to a stop. No real damage only the frontal spoiler was gone. Next to a damaged self esteem we where happy to be alive, after at least 10 three sixties. Other teams told us that the snow wall was damaged over a length of 300 metres. Of the 21 teams, 9 cars had some damage, however all small.

In Germany we drove very fast, around 234km at our GPS.
It was a great experience.(from M2)
http://www.mini2.com/galleries/data/1664/medium/Artic.jpg

[X30YES]

Must have been warmer from SA than in the Artic I bet as well