New world record for old Ford

By Bill McLauchlan

Australian adventurers Rod Wade and co-driver Michael Flanders have set a new world record for driving a pre-war car across the continent. The pair drove from New York to Los Angeles in 50 hours, 20 minutes and 6 seconds.

Wade and Flanders set out on their 3,000 mile (4,800 km) quest in a 1930 Ford Model A at Staten Island at one minute past midnight on Friday November 22nd with the aim of reaching Venice Fishing Pier in around 60 hours, giving an estimated arrival time of the 
morning of Sunday November 24th. Despite horrendous weather conditions including rain storms, extreme winds and snow through New Mexico, the driving duo arrived much sooner than expected. They rolled up to the fishing pier in Venice Beach, California just after 11 o’clock on Saturday evening.

Celebrating at Venice Beach

They encountered the worst of the turbulent weather in Amarillo, the place where the Model A suffered a broken crankshaft after 38 hours of driving in an earlier attempt in October of this year. Freezing rain, fog and snow forced Rod and Michael to stop every two miles (three km) to clear the windscreen of ice as there is no heated windscreen in the classic old Ford.


On arriving at Venice Fishing Pier, Wade said: “I can’t believe we got here in such good time. It got scary through Amarillo again but we battled on. If it weren’t for the weather conditions, we would have done it on 40-odd hours. Maybe next time!”

Next time will in fact see the Aussie team take on the Ocean to Ocean Australia, driving from Queensland to Freemantle but also making the return journey. This is scheduled for June 2014.

The whole reason for setting the world record is to raise awareness and funds to support kidney disease suffers all over the world. With kidney disease affecting Rod’s wife and daughter, he has raised thousands of dollars for kidney charities and the Wade family has just commissioned the first ‘Kidney Kamper’ to get the ball rolling.
Rod added: “The money we raise will allow us to outfit RVs and campervans with dialysis machines so people requiring dialysis can have a little personal freedom to travel and enjoy life, instead of needing to be constantly within reach of a machine at their home, clinic, or hospital.”

For more information on their upcoming Ocean to Ocean Challenge, visit www.vintageadventurer.com