It was the fastest overland journey to the South Pole – 1 day, 15 hours, 54 minutes.
Jason De Carteret, Polar Explorer and blatant danger junkie (we like) decided that his previous world record wasn't quite impressive enough – 6 days (having beaten the previous record by, oh, about 24 days). So he decided to give it another go.
He needed a vehicle. And it was going to have to be quite a vehicle. But from small acorns, mighty Oaks do grow... what is now a totally unique record breaking monster, started life as a brand new (and standard) Toyota Tacoma doublecab V6, bought in the USA from a dealership called Sparks Toyota. They were selected as they are the main dealer and installer of the Toyota Racing Developments(TRD) supercharger units for the V6 petrol engines. "This was in fact my best decision as they have been a massive support and ally to this expedition over the past 3 years". Said Jason.
From the USA the truck went to Iceland to a company called Artic Trucks, who did a mammoth amount of work in a very short time:
Body lift
Changing the rear axle
Redesigning the front and back suspension to accommodate the 44" wheels
Changed the rear set-up from leaf spring to a 5 link coil spring suspension.
The truck then went to the UK. "Now it was a Tacoma on big wheels, but we had to change the look and feel, it had to be more than just big wheels and flared arches."
Enter vehicle architect Ian Nesbit, who developed an incredible design. Teamed with Kieron Bradley, the lead chassis designer from Lotus (who had been a Polar team member for over 6 years) the truck took shape.
The team were quoted £850,000 and 18 months to build Polar, but they managed to take this vehicle from a Tacoma in a car park in America to a fully dressed launch-ready vehicle in London for £200,000 in 74 days.... "The power of passion!"
After all the developments the Toyota Tacoma was now Polar:
4x4, V6, Supercharged petrol engine, 320bhp
Weighing 2,400kgs with
Fuel range of 7,000kms,
All round coil suspension that was like nothing else ever made.
All to break the world record for the fastest journey from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole..... And do it with Bio-fuel. Two engine management systems were installed and could switch between normal fuel and E85 at will.
And so – the World Record
"We had great weather for almost the full 1,115kms. Some low cloud, but really in the scheme of things nothing, we also had the tracks we had created for the first half and after that we had cold temperatures which kept the snow crisp. The world record was 69hrs 21mins, we were going really well and when finally arrived at the South Pole on December 20th, our GPS recorded 39hrs 54mins, faster that I had ever dreamt possible... This was not a dream... This was reality.... We had done it and smashed the previous record.
After walking around the circle of flags that mark the South Pole and letting everything slowly sink in, we noticed that Polar was listing to the right slightly. Investigation found we had snapped a coil spring but by some act of God it had wedged itself in place... Kieron and I did our best to fix it as we still had to drive back... Amazing what you can do with some ratchet straps and frozen porridge..."
Future Plans for Polar?
Well, if she can take on the Antarctic, surely the Dakar isn't out of the question..?
