CAPE TOWN — Ollie Jenks and Seth Scott drove a decades-old British-made Reliant Robin from London to Cape Town, South Africa, covering about 14,000 miles through 22 countries and setting a record for the longest journey by a three-wheeled vehicle. The pair began the four-and-a-half-month trip in October in a car nicknamed Sheila, one of the last Reliant Robins built.
The trip cost between $40,000 and $50,000 and was funded through sponsors and crowdfunding. Jenks and Scott documented the journey on an Instagram page titled "14,000 miles, 3 wheels, 0 common sense" that had nearly 100,000 followers.
"No power steering, no air con, and it doesn't do well up hills or down them. It is the most unsuitable car for probably any journey," Jenks said of the vehicle. He said the designer of the car was reluctant to drive it far. "We made friends with the designer of this car, and he's scared to take it any more than 20 miles," he said.
Reliant Robins went out of production in the early 2000s and retain a dedicated following in the U.K., where one appeared as the Trotter brothers' van in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
The route took Sheila through mountain ranges and deserts and alongside giraffes on safari, past endangered rhinos, and next to an elephant for a photograph. Jenks and Scott were in Benin during an attempted coup and traveled through northern Nigeria at the same time the U.S. launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets. In Cameroon, they received a military escort for about 300 miles through a region of separatist violence. "Imagine this car in a military convoy," he said. In Congo, an overtaking bus nearly forced Sheila against a cliff face.
Within the first two weeks, Sheila's wheel springs were replaced. In Ghana, the gearbox broke, leaving the car able to use only fourth gear, and a stranger shipped a replacement. In Cameroon, Sheila experienced clutch and distributor problems and later suffered an engine failure; Reliant enthusiasts in the U.K. located a replacement engine and sent it out. After one breakdown, locals loaded the car onto a cattle truck for transport to a garage. Mechanics across Africa repaired it by screwing, hammering, and welding. During the final 1,000 miles, the engine overheated in the Namibian desert.
"This is a great underdog story," car enthusiast Graeme Hurst said. "I mean, they have utter tenacity," he added.
After arriving in Cape Town, Sheila was displayed temporarily in a high-end car showroom, showing a broken side window, petrol-stained windshield, bent tire rims, and numerous dents and scratches. The car will undergo a thorough service, then be driven to Kenya, shipped to Turkey, and returned to the U.K. to be displayed at the London Transport Museum, according to Jenks.