Paris / New York - Transcontinental 2009

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
Paris / New York – Transcontinental 2009

After driving the whole Panamericana in less than 16 days back in 2006 and setting a new world height record for vehicles (21.804 feet at the Ojos de Salado in Chile) in 2007 the german adventurer Matthias Jeschke reaches for another goal:

An international team of success-oriented extreme drivers will set out on a round-the-world tour over land exclusively by car for the first time ever, following the footsteps of early human migration. They will use bio fuel for combustion and only bio oil as the lubricant for engines, axles and transmissions.

The car of choice will again be the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon.

Accompanied by a technological exhibition on the topic "Renewable Energies", the historic tour will lead them across Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Alaska, Canada and the USA, crossing 21 countries in total.

An extreme project for drivers – both historical and historic

The expedition team from Europe, Russia and America will start in Paris on 1 October 2008, and is estimated to reach New York by the end of April 2009. They will venture east through Russia up to the outermost edge of Eurasia. Then, around February 2009, the Bering Straight will be crossed on frozen ice, alternatively, by means of modified, floatable vehicles. This will then take them to Alaska and from there, after crossing Canada and the USA from West to East, they will reach the East Coast.

It is the goal of the expedition to drive around the world using only one single means of transport, and to promote the use of biological fuel and oil and at the same time achieve a CO2-neutral project balance.

Political Support

The project is backed by the German Foreign Office, the German embassies and the German Energy-Agency. In order to successfully communicate the project statements of this historic tour, there will be close co-operation with, for instance, all the countries involved and the foreign Chambers of Commerce both prior to and - in particular - during the expedition.

Without a trace and CO2-neutral

In order to make history without leaving any traces behind, the expedition “Paris / New York – Transcontinental 2009” will take place in winter and will be completely CO2-neutral.

Leaving the environment intact on this stretch of almost 40,000 kilometres will be achieved by taking the following actions:

  • Timing: In order not to leave any tire tracks, the tour will take place in winter. The vehicles will only cross meter deep snow and ice as well as deep-frozen soil, known as permafrost.
  • Low-emission bio fuel and exclusively bio oil based on readily biodegradable and renewable or sustainable energy sources will be used for motors, axles and transmissions.
  • The entire project will take place closely monitoring CO2. To be able to complete this project in a CO2-neutral way, after their round-the-world tour, the expedition team and their partners will plant an equivalent number of trees in close collaboration with the state authorities. This will ensure that the tour actually contributes to reducing CO2.
  • The expedition will only use state-of-the-art vehicles and equipment.

I will post photos and news of the whole tour, so stay tuned!
 
Can't wait to see the pictures and progress. I am very interested in the NY arrival. That would be cool to see them reach there.:safari-rig:
 

egn

Adventurer
You find his website here: http://pny2009.com/cms/front_content.php?changelang=4

For the way from Magadan to Uelen there is not much information available:
http://blog.goliath.mail2web.com/page/2/

But as Russia is planning for a rail road there is hope that some roads are already available:
http://larouchepub.com/other/2007/3438victor_razbegin.html
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/media/Razbegin-eng.ppt

But this area is also military territory.

There were already several attempts to cross the Bering Street:
http://goliath.mail2web.com/Video/BBC_InsideOut.asp
http://crossingcontinents.objectis.net/index_eng?lang=eng
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1253733.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1916481.stm
http://www.icechallenger.com/

A real problem will also be the way from Nome to Fairbanks. As I was interested to go the route from Fairbanks to Nome by myself sometime in the future, I did some investigations. But all people I asked told me that it is nearly impossible to go this route by car, especially with a big truck. There are no roads so it would be possible only in winter may be on the route of the Iditarod. And there are also some areas to which it is not allowed to go. So I dropped this idea - for now. ;)

There is also a second attempt to go from Portugal to the Beringstreet:
http://www.ekspedycjastulecia.pl/
http://x3mtv.pl/greatrace/galeria/

Going from the west end of Europe to the east end of America by car is certainly a great adventure.
 
Last edited:

SOAZ

Tim and Kelsey get lost..
WOW! Great trip. So cool to see this area. I wish it was a drive away.
 

jsmoriss

Explorer
I guess they'll be doing this with European Jeeps since diesel-equipped Wranglers are not available in North-America (yet).

js.
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
I have dreamed about a trip similar to this for years.

The most difficult part would be the arctic crossing. As far as I know the only people ever to do anything like this where the polar ring expedition. They build special ultra-light six wheel drive cars that could float. They have circumnavigated most of the arctic circle last time I checked. The last leg they had to do was from Alaska to Russia. They pretty much had the technology down to a science however.

The biggest problem with crossing at the straight is the high speeds of the ice flow. The currents right at the straight cause massive ice shifts that build pressure ridges all over the place. Trying to drive across this would be very hard. The only people I have heard about making a mildly successful crossing at the narrowest point where some english folks that built an amphibious snow-cat that used a from of pontoons that rotated with a screw drive to propel them along.

The best bet for a crossing is to time it later in the winter when the ice is already formed. The downside is that you have to make it basically from Magadan to Prudoe bay Alaska in one winter, or stay an entire year until the ground freezes again. I would look at crossing further north if possible. The logistics of doing this kind of trip would be immense. Its fun to dream about though.
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
The first of three Jeep Wrangler Unlimited has received it´s wheels, tires, axles and suspension. More to come...

All three JKs of the Paris / New York project will be shown to the public on the biggest offroad fair in Europe, held in Bad Kissingen in Germany from May, 22nd to 25th 2008.

teaser1-800.jpg
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,829
Messages
2,878,652
Members
225,393
Latest member
jgrillz94
Top