Come out and celebrate :: The 30-year anniversary of the record-breaking around the world drive :: Red Cloud Rides Again!

November 16th, 2010

Garry Sowerby and Ken Langley’s record-breaking around-the-world drive, named Odyssey 77, began 6 September 1980 in Toronto and ended on 19 November 1980 back in Toronto. The two-man team projected a 77-day run into the Guinness Book of Records but an actual time of 74 days, 1 hour and 11 minutes, shaved a month off the existing record.

Thirty years later, this week from Thursday 18 November to Friday 19 November, 2010, Sowerby and Langley have planned a 24-hour drive around the world without leaving Toronto.

Objective:
Visit locations that represent the 21 countries that the Odyssey team drove through on their first circumnavigation in the same order.

When:
Start: 2:11 p.m. Thursday 18 November 2010
Finish: 2:11 p.m. Friday 19 November 2010

Where:
Finish line, base of CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario

The Team:
Garry Sowerby and Ken Langley, Odyssey 77 Drive Team
‘Red Cloud’, 1980 Volvo 245 DL Wagon

Come out and drive a leg with the team in historic Red Cloud, the 1980 Volvo, or be at the finish line at the CN Tower at 2:11 p.m. on Friday 19 November (actual finish time of the record-breaking drive 30 years ago).

Email us at odyssey@eastlink.ca suggestions of places/items in Toronto that represent the 21 countries that Odyssey 77 drove through 30 years ago: Canada, United States, Australia, India, Pakistan, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Hungary, Czech Republic, East Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, West Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom.

Garry's 30-year take on Odyssey 77:

Thirty years ago to the day I was not driving for a change, but walking the streets of London, England in a state of terror, convinced a nervous meltdown was in progress.

If I didn’t pull myself together, three years’ work by my partner, Ken Langley, and me would be in vain.

Legions of people in 21 countries who had helped us in our bid to set the global driving record would be let down. With the hard part now over, would I fall apart? Would Ken and I have to return home, losers with massive bills to pay? There would be plenty of crow to eat over our pie-in-the-sky dream of establishing a new record for driving around the planet.

Our goal was to complete the 40,000-kilometre drive in 77 days or less. Take a month off the existing 103-day record and beat Phileas Fogg’s 80-day fictitious junket to boot.

Ken and I, who met at Mount Allison University, were on an all-night drive in 1977 between Ottawa and Halifax when the idea surfaced. Talk turned to road trips and by the time the sun rose, we determined the ultimate road trip would be to drive around the world.

I resigned as a Captain in the military and Ken quit his position as an EA to a Canadian Member of Parliament. In the meantime Norris McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of Records, set the rules.

“Start and finish must be at the same place, drive an equator length, cross the equator.” So far so good.

“The clock never stops.” Not so good. That meant air-freighting. Big money, no miles, wasted time.

“Drive team of two people of which only one can drive.” Bad!

I got the job and we built the schedule around a 24-hour day. Drive 15 hours then sleep in a decent hotel. But 60 days into the record, the one-driver rule resulted in the desperate state in which I found myself, frantically wandering the streets of jolly old London.

Ken and I had set up a company to administer the endeavor and sold shares to friends and relatives who got caught up in the excitement. With a snappy AV show and a NO FEAR attitude, we set out to raise the $250,000 needed to propel us into the record books. Weeks turned into months and finally after three years of determination, we drove a Halifax-built Volvo 245 station wagon to the start point, the base of Toronto’s CN Tower.

There was much fanfare and many tears from relatives, friends and a sea of well-wishers on hand when we crashed through the ‘Shell Helps’ barrier and were on our way.

“Now we have to do it, Ken!” I nervously laughed, as we motored west.

And motor we did. Across North America to Los Angeles where the blue and white Volvo nicknamed Red Cloud was air-freighted to Sydney, Australia. The Outback was a vast, scorching, dusty place where we broadsided a kangaroo, dodged the Road Trains and escaped a brothel in Kalgorie unscathed. Down Under was pretty much a slam-bam joy ride.

The 1980 Iran-Iraq war broke out the day we air-freighted Red Cloud into then-Bombay, India and while we made our way through the Sub-Continent, arrangements for an airlift over the war were made. Lost time but no problem, we’d drive to the Norwegian Arctic to make up the distance.

Dysentery hounded Ken in India and we were into Western Europe by the time it cleared up. I was fine until a throbbing throttle leg kept me awake in Southern France. Sleep evaded me for the next 100 hours.

I survived the United Kingdom meltdown though and completed the trip even faster than the 77-day goal. When we sailed Red Cloud through another ‘Shell Helps’ barrier at the base of the CN Tower on November 19th 1980, the clock in our heads finally stopped. Our time of 74 days, 1 hour and 11 minutes clipped the old record by a month!

Ken Langley and I did what we had set out to do. A couple of guys with no background in PR, marketing or events had pulled it together. With a flawless performance by Red Cloud, the help of countless people and the grace of Lady Luck, we had managed to pull it off.

I still own the blue and white Volvo named Red Cloud with 453,000 kilometres on its odometer. The car hasn’t been driven for 10 years (except once in 2005) but I’ve revived it to help me celebrate the 30th anniversary of setting the global record with Ken and a crew of cronies.

Ken will meet me in Toronto on November 18th and, at 2:11 p.m., we’re going around the world yet again, sort of, without leaving the city.

Our task will be to drive Red Cloud around Toronto to unearth items that represent each of the 21 countries we travelled through 30 years ago. The road trip will only be 24 hours, but it’s a run Ken and I have wanted to do for years.

Red Cloud and the Dynamic Duo ride again. Indeed!

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