It is not the usual place where you would find trucks covered by commercial vehicle insurance, but two converted Toyota Hilux vehicles have just managed to get into the Guinness Book of Records by completing a hazardous journey in Antarctica which ended at the South Pole.
Record will be a target for others
The team behind the unusual venture have taken advantage of their epic four and a half day journey to demonstrate the versatility of the vehicles for expedition use and fully anticipate more teams of intrepid adventurers will be getting vehicle insurance on similar trucks in the future as explorers look to beat their feat.
Intrepid journey
The two trucks set off from the research centre at Novolazarevskaya on the Antarctica High Plateau and covered the hazardous ice packed terrain to the South Pole in just 108 hours, which according to the Guinness Book of Records is the fastest overland trip to the South Pole ever.
Not only fast but efficient
Obviously there was a great deal of research that went into the trip and Eric Grimsson, the chief executive of Arctic Trucks, who provided the vehicles, was delighted that the painstaking attention to detail by the crews not only gave them a record but also completed the journey with optimum fuel efficiency. The trucks covered the distance at an average speed of 21 kilometres per hour and reported an impressive fuel efficiency of 2.2 kilometres per litre. The sparing use of fuel meant the trucks only had to stop once to refuel, ensuring the trip would achieve its target of being the fastest overland expedition to the South Pole.
Similar feat in the Arctic
It is not the first time the splendid Toyota Hilux has been modified to journey over terrain that was not really designed for man or motor. In 2007 the world famous Top Gear presenters from BBC TV’s motoring programme raced a modified Toyota Hilux against a dog sled team in a competition to reach the magnetic North Pole. The race was captured on TV and resulted in victory for Jeremy Clarkson and James May in the vehicle. The BBC crew claim this was the first and only time a car had visited any of the poles but now they do have company, although it would be true to say the adventures were poles apart.
