Vintage victory

Vintage Adventurer Rod Wade and co-driver Michael Flanders

have set a new world record for driving a pre-war car across the USA, from New York to Los Angeles. The trip took 50 hours, 20 minutes and 6 seconds.

Australians Rod and Michael began the 3000-mile journey in their 1930 Ford Model A from Staten Island at 00: 01am on Friday 22 November 2013, aiming to reach Venice Fishing Pier, Venice Beach in 60 hours, with an estimated arrival time of the morning of Sunday 24th.

Despite horrendous weather, the duo arrived much sooner, reaching Venice Fishing Pier just after 11.15pm on Saturday 24th.

Rod said: “I can’t believe we got here in such a good time. It got scary through Amarillo, but we battled on. If it wasn’t for the weather conditions, we'd have done it in 40’odd hours.”

The reason for setting the record is to raise awareness and funds to support kidney disease suffers worldwide. With kidney disease affecting Rod’s wife and daughter, he has raised thousands of dollars for kidney charities and the Wade family has just commissioned the first ‘Kidney Kamper'.

Rod added: “The money we raise will allow us to outfit RVs and campervans with dialysis machines, so people requiring dialysis can have a little personal freedom to travel and enjoy life.”