21 Sep Jardine River – Great Rattler Crossing
One of the crossings for the Great Rattler Run team will be the Jardine River...
News
15 Sep Cape York June / July 2016
Want an idea of what Rod and the Great Rattler Run team face...
22 Aug NEW: Great Rattler Run 2016
Vintage Adventurer Rod Wade has revealed his next adventure - the Great Rattler Run 2016, the followup to the 2015 Desert Rattler Run. This time Rod and his team will venture from the furthest point south in Australia to the furthest point north. The Great Rattler Run will start...
17 Jul The Paris Finish Line
Paris at last! The crews had to do it the hard way, nothing changes. Rod and Austen did 170k through the paddocks again and many villages. The village people were out in force to welcome them through, people the whole way from Peking were out on...
16 Jul Arrival in Reims
Today started with a jolt. If the cars were struggling or not, crews were not to drive direct to Reims via the freeway or we would be fined €100, which would be donated to charity! “We decided not to pay and took the route,” explains Rod....
15 Jul The Mountain Passes
Today was a straight run on the flat after crossing over the pass. Rod and Austen took the highway, all 300+k of it and arrived at our hotel at 2.30pm. Rod said: “It was a pleasure to drive Ruby on a highway after days of mountains...
14 Jul Turning through two countries
Rod and Austen left Slovenia on time and found a tyre place, taking the donut off the front and putting Toyo 600-16's radials on the rear, and running the 19" on the front. They have only two good 19" rims. “With the new large Toyos on the...
12 Jul Wheels are coming off!
Last night Vintage Adventurer Rod Wade adjusted the front brakes ready for the torturous bends and hills today as the Peking to Paris rally ventured towards Ljubljana, Slovenia. “We were going quite well and completed two really tough sections,” Rod explains. “At the end, I heard...
10 Jul Beautiful Budapest
The Vintage Adventurer crew has arrived in Budapest – with only a slight drama. Rod and Austen had to change a tyre on the rear that was down to the canvas. They were just 80k from Budapest and put on their last worn tyre. Today...
07 Jul Law of the Land
Today started well but after taking over four hours to get through the Polish border, it was a hard slog for the Vintage Adventurer crew to make it to their next bed. Hopefully with no drama… or so they hoped. "As soon as we were into...
07 Jul All the Brest
The last lap of yesterday’s test section just outside of Brest, Belarus, spelt drama for the Vintage Adventurer crew. The stress from the previous disastrous wheel off at a racetrack had damaged the key way on the opposite side to the wheel off and went...
03 Jul Racing Wheels!
The Vintage Adventurer crew departed Nizhny Novgorod drove 40k to the N-Ring race track. The crews had to do two laps then on the third lap, drive out to time keeper. On the final lap three corners from the finish and on a right hander,...
25 Jun Working hard in Novosibirsk
After beating Mongolia and crossing into Russia, Rod and Austen arrived in Novosibirsk ready to start rebuilding Ruby, their hardworking Ford Model A, to tackle the rest of the Peking to Paris 2016. “I have no idea how the car keeps going as well as it...
16 Jun No rest for Ruby
Today is a rest day in Ulaan Bataar, day 5 of the Peking to Paris rally. No, no real rest day for anyone at all! At 6.30am Rod and Austen were at the Nomads workshop starting repairs by 7.15am. Austen brewed some coffee on his portable stove. "Saved...
16 Jun And we’re off – Peking to Paris 2016
The Peking to Paris Rally got under way on Sunday 12th June at the epic starting line at the Great Wall of China. 'Ruby' the Ford Model A is car 18, the same number Rod had in 2013, and therefore left at 08:09:30am. The first two...
05 May Ruby ready for the off!
After months of hard graft, vintage adventurer Rode Wade and his navigator Austen Ritchie have finished the work on the 1930 Ford Model A 'Fordor' that will take them from the Great Wall of China, across 13,695 kilometers to the finish in the centre of...
02 May Putting Ruby to the Test
Rod is well into the final stages of completing the rebuild of the 1930 Model A Ford Fordor ‘Ruby’ for the Peking to Paris Rally 2016, despite having to go back to the drawing board from the flywheel back because road tests showed the car...
18 Mar Ruby’s rebuild for P2P begins
Work has began on the 1930 Ford Model A ‘Fordor’ named Ruby that will be crewed by Rod Wade and Austen Ritchie on the forthcoming Peking to Paris 2016. The guys are working hard to get Ruby ‘rally ready’ Ruby was taken apart to be sure...
18 Mar Gearing up for Peking to Paris 2016
It seems that ‘vintage adventurer’ Rod Wade can’t get enough of motoring challenges - so much so that he’s taking on the World’s great motoring challenge once again as he gears up for the Peking to Paris 2016. Having already competed in 2013, Rod is fully...
18 Mar Rod racks up another Record
Vintage Adventurer Rod Wade has added another accolade to his growing World Record collection - for driving a pre-war conventional rear wheel drive car across Australia from the furthest point west – Steep Point - in Western Australia to the furthest point east – Byron...