EXTREMELY MINI
It’s universally understood among people who know off-roading that the biggest adventures don’t normally include the most extreme terrain. In fact, it could be argued that the most extreme off-road challenges don’t even need a winch – they need imagination, ground reading skills and a whole lot of bottle.
So it is that earlier this year, a 1974 Mini became the highest vehicle on the planet. Driven by Ben Coombs and supported by a 1990 Range Rover, the vehicle scaled the Ojos del Salado mountain in the Andes – site of many previous attempts on the motorised altitude record.
Since 2023, this has stood at 6721 metres. The current record, achieved by three-times Le Mans winner Romain Dumas
in a heavily modified Porsche 911, was set with the backing of a large team supported by an array of blue-chip sponsors – not to mention the support of Porsche itself. But amid the various big manufacturers with their corporate money and global PR operations, in 2007 a couple of local lads called Gonzalo Bravo and Eduardo Canales braved hostile weather and an engine fi re before finally making it to 6688 metres in their Suzuki Samurai.
This was very much the spirit of Ben’s attempt on the mountain, which is a huge stratovolcano straddling the border between Chile and Argentina.
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