Land Rover is still the king

Would you try this trip in a "Sport Utility Vehicle"?

59.316 Kilometers (36,857 Miles), through 38 countries in 14 months.







We had talked about Christoph Bangert's trip just about a year ago.

Christoph is from Daun, just 20 km from the Nürburgring and, as you can tell from the suade Sparco wheel on his truck, ..yeah, he's into cars.




After 14 months the trip is now over where it started, an amazing adventure and testament to the stamina of both drivers and car.
Take a look at Christoph and his wife's Chiho's travel diaries and videos
and of course Christoph's "day job" photographs but especially, raise at least a virtual beer to a fellow gearhead!


Mali Mud from Travelnotes on Vimeo.

Team Turkana from Travelnotes on Vimeo.

22,000 miles the hard way

This is a little bit different for these pages but if you hang with it you will see that it actually makes perfect sense!

As you know, we like good photography here at the Axis and try to feature as much as we can of ours and of others (and if you would like your picture featured on here, please send it to us) , today we have a special treat.

A few years back, through my involvement with the International Center of Photography's education committee I had the chance to meet Time photographer Christoph Bangert when he showed, along with Chris Morris, some of his work from Iraq. Powerful material and a great eye from this young German, please take a look at the work on his web site, it's quite striking. Also, don't miss this online multimedia presentation for the New York Times about his work in Iraq, it won a POYi Award of Excellence.


What does this have to do with a motorsport blog? During a dinner I moved the conversation with Christoph away from scary tales of reality in the war zone to the more mundane subject of what I do with my free time. Turned out that Bangert was not only into cars but had some rally experience. Cool, ...mental note made at the time.

Recently I thought about him when I saw his byline and e-mailed him a link to the Axis of Oversteer, distraction from reality of hard places I figured. He loved the site and thought it amusing that there was so much devoted to the Nürburgring because he grew up at the track with his house only a half hour away in Daun!
He further proved he had all the right credentials by mentioning his his "year round pass" ticket but especially that his car was the legendary ( and CG's and my cult favorite) Renault Clio Williams: "...140hp and no weight..." he recalls.

Christoph's other thing is doing solo overland drives. In 2002 he had his old Land Rover shipped from Germany to Buenos Aires and proceeded to drive it for 22,000 miles to New York City! He made a travelogue from the experience, Travel Notes was just published this year.

This year he decided to further punish his Land Rover by traveling from Germany to Cape Town and that's where we find Christoph now: you can follow his progress on his travel blog. He was kind enough to send from Mauritania a few pictures of his trusted green can in action.

Happy trails Christoph!