MINI REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Mini Cooper, Detourist Ben Coombs undertook a massive journey in a bid to take a 1974 Mini to new heights – in fact, nearly 6000m above sea level on his Mini 6000 Expedition .

Coombs is a hugely experienced road tripper with many of his past adventures already featured on the Detour website. 'From crossing Africa in a Porsche to driving the length of the Americas in a TVR, I’ve been hitting the road on long distance driving adventures in unlikely cars for many years,' he said. 'However, distance isn’t the only metric with which driving adventures can be measured, so for this project I explored another – height.'

During Coombs' previous American road trip – the Pub2pub Expedition – he reached a high point of around 4700m in a TVR Chimaera on the Bolivian Altiplano. So, while he already had some experience of high-altitude motoring, the Mini’s target altitude of 6000m represented quite a step up.

Finding the right location for the expedition proved to be a challenge in itself. 'To find a road that high, you need to be willing to travel,' he said. 'Western Europe’s highest road tops out at an altitude of only around 3250m, while in North America, even on gravel tracks 4347m is your limit. There are various roads which approach the 6000m mark on the Tibetan Plateau, but the only real chance of finding a track which would enable us to take the Mini to this magic height was through a visit to South America. Both Chile and Peru harbour towering volcanoes with old mine tracks to their summits, such as the Aucanquilcha Stratovolcano, where an abandoned mine track reaches 6176m above sea level. We planned to explore some of these possibilities, and to try to find a dirt track on which our

Mini could celebrate the 60th anniversary of its illustrious forebear at an altitude of six kilometres up.'

The Mini being used for the expedition was a 1974 Mini 1000, which had received a few modifications for its overlanding adventure, including a bespoke roof tent. With four people taking part in the adventure, the Mini was joined on its South American odyssey by a 1990 Range Rover, making for a duo of iconic British classics.

Having reached a height of 5920 metres on the slopes of Chile’s Ojos del Salado volcano as midnight struck on 31st December, Daisy the Mini duly saw in 2024 as the highest car on the planet. Detour – the online destination for road trip inspiration and information – was the expedition’s exclusive media partner and posted regular updates on this epic undertaking at www.detourroadtrips.com/mini-6000 and on its social media channels.