Camel Trophy was an

off-road Off-roading is the act of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, dirt, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, or other natural terrain. Off-roading ranges from casual drives with regular vehicles to competitive events w ...

vehicle-oriented competition that was held annually between 1980 and 2000. It was best known for its use of

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

vehicles over challenging terrain. Occasionally called "The Olympics of 4x4", the event took its name from its main sponsor, the

Camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

cigarette brand.

Vehicles

Camel Trophy originated in 1980 with three Jeep-equipped German teams exploring the Amazon Basin. After that first event, the organisers turned to Land Rover for support and over the course of the next twenty years, all of the Land Rover vehicle range were used.

Range Rover The Land Rover Range Rover, generally shortened to Range Rover, is a Sport utility vehicle, 4x4 Luxury car, luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors. The Range Rover line was launched ...

, Land Rover Series III, Land Rover 90, Land Rover 110,

Land Rover Defender The Land Rover Defender (introduced as the Land Rover One Ten, joined in 1984 by the Land Rover Ninety, plus the extra-length Land Rover One Two Seven in 1985) is a series of British off-road cars and pick-up truck, pickup trucks. They have f ...

Land Rover Discovery The Land Rover Discovery is a series of five or seven-seater family SUVs, produced under the Land Rover marque, from the British manufacturer Land Rover, and later Jaguar Land Rover. The series is currently in its fifth iteration (or generat ...

, and

Freelander The Land Rover Freelander is a series of four-wheel-drive vehicles that was manufactured and marketed by Land Rover from 1997 to 2015. The second generation was sold from 2007 to 2015 in North America and the Middle East as the LR2 and in Europ ...

vehicles all appeared in the distinctive "sandglow" colour scheme. The cars were heavily modified by Land Rover Special Vehicles with a range of expedition, recovery, and safety equipment, including: * Safety Devices

roll cage A roll cage is a specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, pa ...

s * Under body protection (skid plates) and steering guards * Modified electrical systems *

Winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension (physics), tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a Bobb ...

es * Dixon Bate tow hitches and recovery points * Mantec snorkels * Transmission breathers *

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

XCL or

BF Goodrich BFGoodrich is an American tire brand. Originally part of the industrial conglomerate Goodrich Corporation, it was acquired in 1990 (along with Uniroyal, then The Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company) by the French tire maker Michelin. BFGoodrich wa ...

Mud Terrain tyres * Upgraded

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

and

transmission Transmission or transmit may refer to: Science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Transmission (mechanical device), technology that allows controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual tra ...

components * Auxiliary fuel tanks * Webasto fuel burning heaters * Brownchurch / Safety Devices roof racks *

Hella ''Hella'' is an American English slang term originating in and often associated with San Francisco's East Bay area in Northern California, possibly specifically emerging in the 1970s African-American vernacular of Oakland. It is used as an i ...

driving, spot, fog, convoy and work lamps * Brownchurch Bull bars and bush wires * Flag poles * Event plaques, decals and sponsor logos (including Camel Trophy Adventure Wear/Bags/Boots/Watches, Lee Cougan, Perception, Sony, Scott USA, Safety Devices, Land Rover, Fjällräven, Warn, Malaysia Airlines, Superwinch, Royal Dutch Shell, Shell, Avon) * Expedition tools, Jerry cans, Pelican cases, Zarges boxes, high lift or New Concept air jacks, sand ladders, axes, ropes, drawbars, spades. * Garmin, Terratrip and other navigation and communication equipment Generally speaking, except for support and specialist vehicles, the Land Rovers were only used for one event. Some competitors purchased their vehicles and many remained in the host country. Consequently, those vehicles that returned to the United Kingdom were highly sought after as they were low mileage - but they were "Camel Trophy miles". They were stripped of most of their equipment by Land Rover before they were released, making restoring the vehicles to their original competition condition expensive and time-consuming.

List of events and vehicles used

Event results

Over the 18-year period in which the Camel Trophy featured Land Rover vehicles, Italian teams ultimately won the Camel Trophy three times - in 1982, 1984, and 1987. Teams from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Turkey all won the Camel Trophy twice.

Camel Trophy's successor: the "G4 Challenge"

In 2003, competitors representing sixteen nations helped Land Rover fill the gap left after the demise of Camel Trophy. Surprisingly, the inaugural Land Rover G4 Challenge contained many of the elements of Camel Trophy 1998, which Land Rover had reportedly been disappointed with. The "ultimate global adventure" was a test of skill, stamina, and mental agility in four separate stages, each in a different time zone. The prize was a top-of-the-range

. The winner Rudi Thoelen declined a Range Rover, and opted for two Defenders instead. The 2006 Land Rover G4 Challenge promised to be tougher than the inaugural event and delivered a more vehicle-based focus. The competitors, working in bi-national teams faced thousands of miles of vehicle-based activity in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. The 2008-9 G4 Challenge, supporting the Red Cross and based in Mongolia, was cancelled in December 2008 in the middle of the selection stages due to the current global economic downturn. Land Rover were forced to end the event as a cost saving-measure to allow them to focus on product launches in 2009.

References

External links

Camel Trophy Club
Camel Trophy Club intends to keep the Camel Trophy spirit alive!
Camel Trophy Club photographic archive
Hundreds of thousands of images available from Camel Trophy Club
Camel Trophy Club video channel
YouTube is a good source of free-to-view Camel Trophy footage and the Camel Trophy Club channel includes exclusive interviews with Camel Trophy people.
Camel Trophy Shop
Camel Trophy memorabilia
Camel Trophy Forever - Brazil
Photos, events, history, hobbies, articles ...
Camel Trophy Portugal
Photos, articles, vehicle replicas and events

Re-release of the Camel Trophy events from 1990 to 1998 on DVD

Camel Trophy Info - list of event results and vehicles used
Camel Trophy Boats
Sale of the original camel trophy boats used in the 2000 event. Good photos and info.
Camel Trophy Netherlands
A group of Camel trophy enthusiasts from the Netherlands.
Camel Trophy Adventures - Bulgaria
Camel Trophy Adventure Holidays in Bulgaria. {{Authority control Land Rover Off-road racing R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company 20th century in sports

Vehicles

List of events and vehicles used

Event results

Camel Trophy's successor: the "G4 Challenge"

See also

References

External links