On This Day

Wednesday 19th November 1980

39 years ago

Ken Langley and Garry Sowerby crashed their Volvo DL wagon through a red-and-yellow paper finish line and into the record books for the fastest-ever drive around the world. With Sowerby at the wheel and Langley navigating, the 'Odyssey 77' team drove through 24 countries across North America, Australia, Europe and Asia. They had to drive the equivalent length of the Earth's equator -- 24,901.55 miles. The two Canadians arrived at the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada at 2:11 p.m. EST -- 74 days and 51 minutes after their September 6 departure, three days ahead of schedule. They drove 26.893.75 miles (43,030 kilometres) to eclipse the previous mark of 102 days set by American Johnnie Parsons in 1976. They conquered Australia's desolate outback, India's tropical jungles and the arid semi-deserts of Pakistan. They drove through five communist nations, bathed on the sunny beaches of Monaco and southern Spain, and stood on the Arctic Circle in swirling snow at Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. The Volvo had only minor mechanical problems. In the rugged outback, dust penetrated the voltage regulator, a flying rock cracked the windshield and a rangy kangaroo dented the fender in a losing, fatal game of chance. A sharp rock pierced a front tire when they slipped off a flooded road in India and a front shock collapsed on a washboard secondary road in Sweden.