Two adventurous British men have returned from a record-breaking epic charity drive from Tokyo to London in James Bond’s favourite car. The length of the Asian Highway and across Europe was driven by Phil Colley and Richard Meredith in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage to raise awareness of the Make Roads Safe campaign.
The tour operator and school teacher began their feat where all great journeys begin, at our very own Stanfords store - all the maps the pair used on their trip were from Stanfords, and they even shunned their in-car sat-nav system in favour of the trusty paper map. Phil told us, “The maps we used to get from Tokyo to London were all purchased at your wonderful shop. There was a sat-nav in the car for Europe but we never used it - even if we'd known how! Thanks for the great maps!”
The UN-backed trip took them through countries including South Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with the car attracting much attention along the way. On arriving in Istanbul, Phil and Richard became the first people to drive the entire length of the new Asian Highway.
After 10,000 miles and 49 days, crossing two continents, 18 countries and four seas, the triumphant pair pulled into London on 12th August, exactly on schedule, for an official reception at the Park Lane Intercontinental Hotel.
Make Roads Safe is an international campaign to put global road traffic injuries on the G8 and UN sustainability agendas. The campaign aims to raise awareness of a global road traffic injury epidemic that kills at least 3,000 people and 500 children every day.
Aston Martin provided the car, counting the journey towards an ongoing long distance testing programme which would have been undertaken on European motorways, and together with other sponsors, including Intercontinental Hotels and Bridgestone, has used the journey to raise money for a UNICEF-led road safety programme for children in China. The car will also be auctioned in support of UNICEF.
Author: Rachel Ricks
Date: 23 October 2007
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