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  • World Record Run (from Norway to South Africa)

    12.10.2014

    We did it! On Sunday evening, 20.42 p.m. we - Marius Biela, Matthias Prillwitz and Rainer Zietlow - reached the final goal, Cape Agulhas, the most southern tip of Africa with our Touareg. Police officer Julia Anne de Brain stopped the time inside the car after 2 days and 51 minutes, the time it took...

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    12.10.2014

    The last night belonged to Zimbabwe, the second but last country on our Touareg CapetoCape Tour. The complete darkness of the night made our journey difficult. The small streets, often with high plateaus and brittle edges needed full concentration. Forthcoming trucks would often stay in the middle...

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    11.10.2014

    Yesterday, at 8.42 p.m. it was happening again: after 13 anxious days in the workshop, Mr Kinderu Gharama Saidi, city counselor of Iringa sent us on the last part of our Touareg CapetoCape adventure. Besides the official time keeping, we signed the Golden Book of Iringa, which was especially taken...

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    10.10.2014

    Just as we promised, we said goodbye to Dar Es Salaam before the sun was rising this morning, to get to Iringa, where we wanted to launch our re-start. Just across the city border, we noticed two minor problems with the car, which made us turn around to CFAO once again. So just before noon, we did...

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    09.10.2014

    The wedding - that´s at least what Germans say when engine and chassis come together. And this is what the CapetoCape team and the mechanics Johannes and Benjamin who especially came from Germany to help us here, could celebrate last night at CFAO Motors Tanzania. After a very short night and the...

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    08.10.2014

    All parts are there, now manpower and teamwork are challenged.

    In the midmorning, Rainer and Marius could finally pick up the parts from the customs, grace to great support by Kühne+Nagel. All parts were well packaged and complete - great work in Bratislava and Vienna. With a convoy of VW Amaroks,...

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    04.10.2014

    In Germany, October 3rd, the Day of German Unity was of course celebrated traditionally yesterday and of course many people would not have to work. Here in Tanzania, 10.000 km away from our home country, the workshop lights would not go out although we had a reason to celebrate, too. Whether chassis...

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    01.10.2014

    After a stressful journey of 500 km from Iringa to Dar Es Salam, we took up our "crisis-office". Team leader Rainer Zietlow has to organize everything now and can really count on the team of CFAO, the national Volkswagen importer here in Tanzania.

    Of course the disappointment is stuck in our minds,...

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    29.09.2014

    In the name of the Touareg CapetoCape team, our partners and sponsors we want to apologize for the break in our reporting of our Touareg CapetoCape world record drive from Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas. During the last two days, we have not been capable of sorting everything out, neither logistically nor...

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    27.09.2014

    Kenya was clement on us - even if the corrugated ground of the Road of Hell gave us and our equipment a good shake. The result was an evening blog which came far too late and a foglight which dismantled itself. An unseen speed bumper had to disturb our night as well - one of these small uprisings in...

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    26.09.2014

    We are on schedule again. This good day started with our entry into Kenya and now, at sunset, we are leaving Marsabit behind. The border crossing between Ethiopia and Kenya went quicker than we´ve had expected. On the Ethiopian side we did just arrive, before the official could close his office door...

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    26.09.2014

    Just after publishing our evening news, Marius had a solution for our tablet-problem. Our Navigation could work again and we had a calm night, although the road ahead was difficult to drive. Until now, Africa has not shown it´s gentle side to us.

    200 km before Addis, we got into a heavy...

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    25.09.2014

    For entering Ethiopia, it took some more documents, although our visas were already inside our passports. However, we had to visit three offices at the border village to get our permission to enter Ethiopia. It took a little longer, but altogether it fitted with the time we had planned for this...

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    25.09.2014

    We left Egypt in the night via an unofficial military checkpoint on a road, which was only opened for us. Our entry into Sudan was other than expected: instead of watchtowers and barb wired fences, a small welcoming committee waited for us, just 5 m behind the border, carrying a large "Welcome"...

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    24.09.2014

    Apart from the stuck tailgate, our entry into Egypt was trouble-free - also grace to our friends from Volkswagen Egypt. They waited for us at the airport and accompanied us with two VW Tiguans. They also gave us the chance to shoot some car to car pictures from our way through their home country and...

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    24.09.2014

    The third day was quite hard and we had to push ourselves to the limit. After 70 hours of non-stop driving towards Cape Agulhas, we know what a marathon-drive is. But besides the usual things we have to do, finding sleep and doing our job at the steering wheel, we also had to prepare everything for...

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    23.09.2014

    We spend our third day in the CapetoCape Touareg in Turkey. After a quick wash, Rainer approached the border crossing procedure. The border officials watched everything critically. In the meantime, we remembered the wish we had at Nordkapp ("just back into the warm Touareg"), when we were standing...

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    23.09.2014

    Good Morning from the CapetoCape Touareg! Of course we did not go to bed after dinner yesterday. Via Brno we went directly to Bratislava, the city where our Touareg was built. And also here Volkswagen Slovakia had prepared a surprise for us. On the Slovakian border two new "Facelift" VW Touaregs...

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    22.09.2014

    The detour around Lübeck´s rush hour was the right thing to do, as we could see when we arrived in Puttgarden - quickly we saw the favorite traffic sign of all German drivers. Just before 9 a.m. we reached the fuel station in Berlin. We were happy for this short slack time, since some friends and a...

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    22.09.2014

    Heavy rain around Stockholm made the last stage of our journey through Scandinavia a little harder. We want to thank Volkswagen Sweden for the nice welcome and the support at our last fuel stop in Stockholm. We missed the scheduled ferry from Røgby to Puttgarden at 4.15 a.m. scarcely due to weather...

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    21.09.2014

    We´ve had a very good start into the world record drive. The Touareg goes like a Swiss watch. We left Norway in dense snowfall. The snowy and icy vehicles, which passed by when we drove the first 300 km caused astonishment. When we reached Finland, it became clear: the onset of winter came one day...

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    21.09.2014

    The Touareg CapetoCape Team is on it´s way. Shortly after 3 am, mayor Ms. Hansen send us on our World Record Drive. To mark the occasion, she brought her chain of office, which shows that our project is highly appreciated up here at the most Northern tip of Europe. She brought a present and a...

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    Scout Tour (From 3rd to 20th of September)

    20.09.2014

    Honningsvag/Nordkapp - we reached our last overnight accommodation with a real bed. Only few hours now until we leave. One could say, that it is the calm before the storm, but our mind is full of thoughts.

    Good preparation will help us to find some calmness in the cockpit, as individual...

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    19.09.2014

    We´ve spent the first night in the VW Touareg. Over 100 km with heavy fog made our journey a little harder. At 3 am we passed by Stockholm and we´ll probably reach our last overnight accommodation in Honnigsvag, 30 km from Nordkapp, by midnight. For now, everyone is concentrated and works on his...

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    18.09.2014

    The Touareg Cape to Cape team left the Automechanika and Frankfurt. We had two great days with our sponsors and friends. Thank you for coming over and most of all thank you for all the good wishes for the start of our tour!

    After a short stop at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, where everything has been...

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    17.09.2014

    The exhibition day has come - the Touareg Cape to Cape team with Rainer Zietlow, Marius Biela and Matthias Prillwitz came together at Frankfurt´s trade fair "Automechanika". Rainer traveled in the Touareg from Munich, where he had been invited to join the presentation of the new Touareg "Facelift"....

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    16.09.2014

    As Volkswagen AG published it´s second official press release (www.touareg-capetocape.com/about) yesterday, we want to explain our route a little bit more detailed. On Sunday, September 21st, we will start in Nordkapp, Norway. From there we´ll drive southbound through Scandinavia, take the ferry...

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    15.09.2014

    Today, we were invited to join the presentation of the new Volkswagen Touareg near Munich. We presented our project "Cape to Cape" to the journalists. The interest in the world record attempt, which starts in six days in Norway, was great. We explained our modifications of the Touareg and important...

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    12.09.2014

    Today, we want to introduce our sponsors – as without strong partners, such a world record attempt with several months of preparation would not work. Since 2005 Rainer Zietlow has been supported by sponsors, such as 3M and Kühne+Nagel, Liqui Moly joined in 2009. Other sponsors like Allianz, Exide,...

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    11.09.2014

    Since 2002 the Touareg has been built in Slovakia's capital Bratislava. In 2005 Rainer Zietlow visited the factory for the first time after setting a new high altitude record for standard vehicles with a Touareg V6. This was followed by further factory visits after his two world record attempts on...

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    10.09.2014

    Long distance world records often means the crossing of oceans or countries where war or military conflicts are taking place. These are always difficult passages. For Touareg CapetoCape, we had to choose our route carefully, as there are Syria and Libya which are facing inner conflict. Also, both...

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    09.09.2014

    We are again driving in a Volkswagen Touareg, this time in a new "Facelift” Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI, which will be released at European VW dealers starting October 2014. The Touareg became some kind of a “home” for us, as our two long distance world record drives before has also been driven with a...

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    05.09.2014

    On our tours, we always meet interesting people. During our scout tour in May/June 2014, we had the chance to visit a Masai village in Kenya, some of our today´s photos were taken there - just take a look at these great people! Also we want to share a short video from our scout tour, so you see what...

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    04.09.2014

    During our scout tour in May/June 2014, everyone was excited and curious as soon as we stopped the Touareg somewhere. Immediately, we´ve been surrounded by people, as it happened in this village in Kenya. We explained our route to the natives, as we always take our time on the scout tour, to talk to...

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    03.09.2014

    It has been more than one year since we´ve completed our last challenge, Amarok Polar Expedition, so it is time for something new - a world record drive is waiting for us!

    This time, we´ll be driving in our new Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI from Norway´s most northern tip, Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas, the...

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    Roadshow (From 22nd of October to 4th of December)

    04.12.2014

    Finally – after four months away from home we arrived in Europe again. On November 26th we flew the Touareg from Cairo to Paris to be in time for an invitation from Hewlett Packard in Frankfurt, where Rainer presented the world record project in front of 1200 sales men. Another invitation from HP...

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    25.11.2014

    In the afternoon, we visited the Sudanese Volkswagen importer in Khartoum. In his Volkswagen showroom, he had planned a great event and invited many guests. Customers, journalists and employees - everyone accepted his invitation and visited our event. Thank you very much, Sadig and Amir for the...

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    20.11.2014

    On Thursday, November 20th, visiting the SOS children's village in Khartoum, Sudan, was on our agenda. Philip, an employee of the German embassy in Sudan accompanied us to the children's village, where the Mamas of the village had prepared a great welcome for us. More than 50 children came to take a...

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    15.11.2014

    After we'd visited CFAO in Dar Es Salaam, we left the Touareg at the Volkswagen Importer and took the plane to Dubai and Riad, to present our film about the world record drive. Unfortunately we did not get a Visa for the Touareg, so we had to screen the video without the car. VW Saudi Arabia...

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    12.11.2014

    On November 3rd, we visited the SOS children's village in Lusaka - one of the villages we chose to support for Touareg CapetoCape. The village in the Zambian capital was founded in 1999 and provides a loving home for children, who have lost parental care. Also they built schools in the village in...

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    04.11.2014

    Now we have it in black and white! Finally, we received the official certificate for setting a new world record for driving from Nordkapp, Norway, to Cape Agulhas, the Southernmost tip of Africa in 21 days, 16 hours, 39 minutes and 12 seconds. The certificate was made by TÜV Nord and signed by...

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    29.10.2014

    On Wednesday the 22nd October we visited Tshebedisano Primary School in Pimville, Soweto,where we planted our first tree through “Food & Trees for Africa” for our carbon neutral campaign. It was great to see all the school kids, who sang traditional songs and celebrated trees being planted at their...

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    22.10.2014

    Since our arrival in Cape Agulhas on the 12th of October, it has been almost two weeks that we have spent in South Africa. Since then we have visited sponsor facilities and several Volkswagen dealer events and the Volkswagen factory in Uitenhage, where we did always present our video about the world...

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