Camel Trophy

Camel Trophy was an off-road vehicle-oriented competition that was held annually between 1980 and 2000.^[1][2][3] It was best known for its use of Land Rover vehicles over challenging terrain. Occasionally called "The Olympics of 4x4",^[4] the event took its name from its main sponsor, the Camel cigarette brand.^[5]

Camel Trophy Land Rover Defender 110 '91 Tanzania-Burundi Communications Unit

A pre scout expedition in 1991 in Guyana to explore the route for the Trophy 1992 planned to happen there. The vehicles are Land Rover Defender 110.

Vehicles

Camel Trophy originated in 1980 with three Jeep-equipped German teams exploring the Amazon Basin.^[6][4] 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.^[7] Range Rover, Land Rover Series III, Land Rover 90, Land Rover 110, Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Discovery, and Freelander vehicles all appeared in the distinctive "sandglow" colour scheme.

The cars were heavily modified by Land Rover Special Vehicles^[8][5] with a range of expedition, recovery, and safety equipment, including:

• Safety Devices roll cages
• Under body protection (skid plates) and steering guards
• Modified electrical systems
• Winches
• Dixon Bate tow hitches and recovery points
• Mantec snorkels
• Transmission breathers
• Michelin XCL or BF Goodrich Mud Terrain tyres
• Upgraded suspension and transmission components
• Auxiliary fuel tanks
• Webasto fuel burning heaters
• Brownchurch / Safety Devices roof racks
• Hella 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

Year	Location	Team vehicles	Support vehicles[9]
1980	Brazil	Ford U50's (License built Jeep CJ5's)
1981	Indonesia/Sumatra	Range Rover	Range Rover
1982	Papua New Guinea	Range Rover	Range Rover
1983	Zaire	Land Rover Series III 88"	Series III 109"
1984	Brazil	Land Rover 110	Land Rover 110
1985	Indonesia/Borneo	Land Rover 90	Land Rover 110
1986	Australia	Land Rover 90	Land Rover 110
1987	Madagascar	Range Rover TD	Range Rover TD
1988	Indonesia/Sulawesi	Land Rover 110	Land Rover 110
1989	Brazil	Land Rover 110	Land Rover 110
1990	Siberia, USSR	Discovery 200tdi (3-door)	Defender 110 & 127"
1991	Tanzania Burundi	Discovery 200tdi	One Ten
1992	Guyana[10]	Discovery 200tdi	Defender 110 200tdi
1993	Sabah, Malaysia	Discovery 200tdi	Defender 110 200tdi
1994	Argentina Paraguay Chile	Discovery 200tdi	Defender 110 200tdi
1995	Mundo Maya[11] (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico)	Discovery 300tdi	Defender 110 300tdi
1996	Kalimantan	Discovery 300tdi	Defender 110 300tdi
1997	Mongolia[12]	Discovery 300tdi	Defender 110 300tdi
1998	Tierra del Fuego	Freelander	Defender 110 300tdi
2000	Tonga-Samoa	Ribtec 655	Defender 110 HCPU and Honda CRV

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^[13] - in 1982,^[14] 1984,^[15] and 1987.^[16] Teams from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Turkey all won the Camel Trophy twice.^[9]

Year	Camel Trophy winners	Winners' names	Team Spirit Award	Special Tasks Award	Land Rover Award
1980	N/A	Klaus Karttna-Dircks and Uwe Machel	N/A	N/A	N/A
1981	West Germany	Christian Swoboda and Knuth Mentel	N/A	N/A	N/A
1982	Italy	Cesare Geraudo and Giuliano Giongo	N/A	N/A	N/A
1983	The Netherlands	Henk Bont and Frans Heij	N/A	N/A	N/A
1984	Italy	Maurizo Levi and Alfredo Redaelli	N/A	N/A	N/A
1985	Germany	Heinz Kallin and Bernd Strohdach	Brazil	N/A	N/A
1986	France	Jaques Mambre and Michel Courvallet	Australia	N/A	N/A
1987	Italy	Mauro Miele and Vincenzo Tota	Spain	N/A	N/A
1988	Turkey	Galip Gurel and Ali Deveci	UK	N/A	N/A
1989	UK	Bob Ives and Joe Ives[17]	Belgium	N/A	N/A
1990	The Netherlands	Rob Kamps and Stijn Luyx	Spain - Canary Islands	N/A	N/A
1991	Turkey	Menderes Utku and Bulent Ozler	Turkey	Austria	N/A
1992	Switzerland	Alwin Arnold and Urs Bruggisser	USA	France	N/A
1993	USA	Tim Hensley and Michael Hussey	Spain - Canary Islands	France	N/A
1994	Spain	Carlos Martinez and Jorge Corella	South Africa	Spain	N/A
1995	Czech Republic	Zdenek Nemec and Marek Rocejdl	Russia	Czech Republic	N/A
1996	Greece	Miltos Farmakis and Nikos Sotirchos	South Africa	Russia	Greece
1997	Austria	Stefan Auer and Albnecht Thousing	Sweden	N/A	Mihai Mares and Manu Cornel, Romania.
1998	France	William Michael and Marc Challamel	South Africa	N/A	Spain

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.^[4] 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 Freelander or Range Rover. 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, Laos, Brazil, and Bolivia.

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.^[2]

See also

• Camel (cigarette)
• Land Rover
• Land Rover Series
• Land Rover Defender
• Range Rover Classic
• Land Rover Discovery
• Land Rover Freelander

References

1. "Camel Trophy Club - History".
2. "A brief history of the Camel Trophy". drivetribe.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021.
3. "Gallery: Land Rovers in the Camel Trophy over the years". 12 February 2021.
4. "Camel Trophy Adventure: The Olympics of 4x4". 14 May 2020.
5. "The Camel Trophy Was Land Rover's Tastefully Adventurous Overland Challenge". 3 February 2016.
6. "Camel Trophy Club - Transamazonica 1980".
7. "Camel Trophy Club - Vehicles".
8. "An Original Camel Trophy Land Rover Defender". 12 October 2021.
9. "Camel Trophy Owners Club - One Life. Live It". Cameltrophy.co.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
10. Camel Trophy Chat episode 1: What it takes to be selected for Team UK. Camel Trophy Club. 6 December 2020. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022 – via YouTube.
11. Camel Trophy Chat episode 2: Camel Trophy is not a race... So what is it?. Camel Trophy Club. 6 December 2020. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022 – via YouTube.
12. Camel Trophy Chat episode 3: From Outer Mongolia to the middle of the Pacific. Camel Trophy Club. 6 December 2020. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022 – via YouTube.
13. Camel Trophy Chat episode 5: Team Italia. Camel Trophy Club. 21 March 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2022 – via YouTube.
14. "Camel Trophy Club - Papua New Guinea 1982".
15. "Camel Trophy Club - Brazil 1984".
16. "Camel Trophy Club - Madagascar 1987".
17. "Bob and Joe Ives awarded the 1989 RAC Segrave Trophy".

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 Archived 9 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine Camel Trophy memorabilia
• Camel Trophy Forever - Brazil Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Photos, events, history, hobbies, articles ...
• Camel Trophy Portugal Photos, articles, vehicle replicas and events (in Portuguese)
• SmokeandRubber.com Motorsort DVD Shop Re-release of the Camel Trophy events from 1990 to 1998 on DVD
• The Land Rover FAQ 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.