How Far Can You Go in 24 Hours?

Can You Drive a Modern 4×4 for 24 Hours Non-stop on a Sandy Off-road Track? There Was Only One Way to Find Out.

- Reuben Van Niekerk

HERE at Leisure Wheels we tend to come up with some crazy ideas. In an effort to portray and test vehicles in a unique way, we are always looking for something different to do with the everincreasing flow of new models that make their way into our parking lot.

During one quiet afternoon spent trawling the internet, we realised there was a bit of a hole in the list of world driving records. There are the normal land speed records across a variety of surfaces but not much pertaining to off-road driving. For example, there was no record for the furthest distance driven off-road. While this would not mean much to most people, it meant only one thing to us: we had to set a record.

The furthest possible distance driven off-road in 24 hours is dependent on a number of factors. What is the definition of off-road driving? Does it mean gravel roads or trail driving? South Africa has an extensive network of good gravel roads and we could have easily found a route that would have allowed us to average over a 100km/h and clock up well over 2 000km in 24 hours. But we wanted a real challenge. We settled on a sand-driving route. We thought this would give us the best of all worlds. It is real off-road driving because you need a proper 4×4 with low-range and a difflock. We also figured the sand would be a bit kinder to the vehicle than a rocky 4×4 trail. And as it goes in the record-setting business, we wanted the resulting distance to be a challenge and something that would take a lot of effort for other teams to beat.

With the basic challenge formulated in our heads, we needed to decide on a suitable vehicle. Sand driving requires a specific driving technique as it is imperative to keep up your momentum to prevent getting stuck. A more powerful vehicle generally makes this easier. We also needed a vehicle that would remain comfortable while traversing rough terrain over long periods of time.