London to New York, By Defender

With the completion of the Channel Tunnel, it became possible to drive from London to the tip of Russia. With that crossing a possibility, it didn't take long for someone to propose the near impossible: Driving across the Bering Sea pack ice to North America, for a London to New York traverse.

Land Rover accepted sponsorship and provided 3 defender 110s and 3 mechanics as team members. They also underwrote the cost of an amphibious unit required to cross bodies of water between sea ice. The amphibious was a Kevlar made catamaran, equipped with a hydraulic pump that drove 2 stern-mounted paddle wheels. With the vehicle mounted on top, the pump was driven from the rear power take-off on the Defender. The machine was dubbed the LRPC (Land Rover Powered Catamaran).




Check out this video of reconnaissance conducted by the team to determine feasability of the crossing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2yv2pnJAKA (Sorry, embedding is disabled.)

Some stills of the Defenders in the video sporting Mattracks...



A well written account of the project resides at Max Adventure, which provided Arctic base
leadership, recce advice and logistics co-ordination for the expedition.

You can find desktop backgrounds of the above two images in the right hand column of their home page.