Vintage Adventurer Rod Wade and co-driver Michael Flanders have created a new world record for driving a pre-war car across the USA, from New York to Los Angeles in 50 hours, 20 minutes and 6 seconds.
Australians Rod and Michael began the 3,000-mile journey in their 1930 Ford Model A at Staten Island at 12:01 a.m. on Friday November 22 with the aim of reaching Venice Fishing Pier in around 60 hours, giving an estimated arrival time of the morning of Sunday November 24.
Despite horrendous weather conditions including rain storms, extreme winds and snow through New Mexico, the driving duo arrived much sooner than expected, reaching Venice Beach just after 11.15 p.m. on Saturday evening November 23.
The team experienced 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. The freezing rain, fog and snow forced Rod and Michael to stop every two miles to clear the windscreen of ice as there is no heated windscreen in the classic car.
On arriving at Venice Fishing Pier, Rod said: “I can’t believe we got here in such a good time. It got scary through Amarillo again but we battled on. If it wasn’t for the weather conditions, we would have done it on 40-odd hours. Maybe next time!”
The whole reason for setting the world record was 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.”
