RE: Corvette C4: PH Carpool
Discussion
OMG, come the revolution when we ovethrow the p1ss poor excuses we have for Governments I nominate you as our new Dictator (if its possible to nominate a Dictator that is, d'oh) All hail our new glorious leader, overseer of irrational decision making and 'man logic'
Outstanding example of 'just because'!
Outstanding example of 'just because'!
Guiseley said:
Is this the Ben Coombs who took the 924 across Africa? Presume it must be as how many epic car travel nutters are there in the world! If so then I look forward to the next book - I have Survival of the Fastest ready for summer vacation reading.
Good effort sir.
Yes. His book of that trip is available as an ebook for the Kindle here:Good effort sir.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-of-the-Quickest-e...
I bought it on the back of the other thread and have really enjoyed the writing.
Thanks folks!
The Corvette left Cambodia abut a week ago; it's currently parked in a temple (seriously...) near Koh San Road in Bangkok for the week, while I've shot off to Myanmar (Burma) to spend a week as a proper backpacker, rather than a pretend one who drives around in a Corvette. Obviously this means I've not sold it yet; I'm finding the problem with trying to sell it in S.E.Asia is the import taxes to make it road legal, which run to well over 100% of the car's value in most of the countries here. I'll be continuing the drive next week, heading south from Bangkok while still trying to sell; if there's no luck I guess it'll be getting put on a cargo ship in southern Malaysia...
In answer to some of the points raised above:
Regarding the price of fuel, I'm not going to pretend it's been a cheap trip, but bear in mind that gas is generally much cheaper once you leave Western Europe. For instance, the 3,000-odd miles we covered in Kazakhstan were done at 50p/litre, so in terms of pence per mile, it actually worked out cheaper to run the 5.7l V8 in Central Asia than it is to run my 1.9 Turbodiesel back in the UK - and that's before you consider that the gas was generally being split 2 ways between the 2 folk in the car. I'm not about to claim it's a remotely cheap way to travel, but it's not quite as bad as you'd imagine either...
Red tape - for most countries on the trip, this was fairly minimal. Once outside the EU, when you drive up to a border to enter a country, you typically fill in a temporary import document which enables you to bring the car into a country for a limited amount of time (usually 1 - 3 months) before it's eligible for import duties. In theory, as long as the car leaves the country before the deadline you don't pay a penny. In reality, even if the car breaks and you've got to abandon it, you can get away with the abandonment due to the inefficiency of most non-Western nations' customs procedures. Insurance is the other 'red tape' consideration; when you enter a country you generally buy an uber-basic package on the border (for instance, I recently paid 20 quid for a year's basic Thai insurance).
As someone above mentioned, this trip's big exception to the above rules was China. To get the cars across China we had to apply for permission from the Chinese government by submitting a full itinerary, car and personal details, etc, 3 months before we arrived at the border. This sounds more complex than it actually is, as you have to do this through a Chinese company, who liaise with the government for you - for a painfully hefty fee, naturally. The 4 days at the border was our experience, anywhere from 2 to 6 is typical. The time is spent getting Chinese number plates, Chinese driving licenses, Chinese MOTs, various customs and government clearances, etc - it goes on a bit, with each car having a dossier an inch thick about it by the end! However, again this isn't as daunting as is sounds, as one of the requirements for driving your own car in China is that you have a government-authorized 'guide' traveling in one of the cars at all times, and one of the guides jobs is to help get the cars through the red tape.
Security - the more you look into it, the more of a non issue it is. Yes, there's a small chance you could be unlucky, but planning, research and common sense can minimize any risks, and at the end of the day, millions of people live their lives out safely in every country we've traveled through, and it's probably actually more dangerous walking home in London at 2am on a Saturday morning than it is driving across Kazakhstan with your eyes open to the risks (disclaimer - this is not true of a big trip across Africa. Africa is definitely way more dodgy than Asia...).
Right, I think that covers most of the points/questions raised - I'm off to look around some temples...
The Corvette left Cambodia abut a week ago; it's currently parked in a temple (seriously...) near Koh San Road in Bangkok for the week, while I've shot off to Myanmar (Burma) to spend a week as a proper backpacker, rather than a pretend one who drives around in a Corvette. Obviously this means I've not sold it yet; I'm finding the problem with trying to sell it in S.E.Asia is the import taxes to make it road legal, which run to well over 100% of the car's value in most of the countries here. I'll be continuing the drive next week, heading south from Bangkok while still trying to sell; if there's no luck I guess it'll be getting put on a cargo ship in southern Malaysia...
In answer to some of the points raised above:
Regarding the price of fuel, I'm not going to pretend it's been a cheap trip, but bear in mind that gas is generally much cheaper once you leave Western Europe. For instance, the 3,000-odd miles we covered in Kazakhstan were done at 50p/litre, so in terms of pence per mile, it actually worked out cheaper to run the 5.7l V8 in Central Asia than it is to run my 1.9 Turbodiesel back in the UK - and that's before you consider that the gas was generally being split 2 ways between the 2 folk in the car. I'm not about to claim it's a remotely cheap way to travel, but it's not quite as bad as you'd imagine either...
Red tape - for most countries on the trip, this was fairly minimal. Once outside the EU, when you drive up to a border to enter a country, you typically fill in a temporary import document which enables you to bring the car into a country for a limited amount of time (usually 1 - 3 months) before it's eligible for import duties. In theory, as long as the car leaves the country before the deadline you don't pay a penny. In reality, even if the car breaks and you've got to abandon it, you can get away with the abandonment due to the inefficiency of most non-Western nations' customs procedures. Insurance is the other 'red tape' consideration; when you enter a country you generally buy an uber-basic package on the border (for instance, I recently paid 20 quid for a year's basic Thai insurance).
As someone above mentioned, this trip's big exception to the above rules was China. To get the cars across China we had to apply for permission from the Chinese government by submitting a full itinerary, car and personal details, etc, 3 months before we arrived at the border. This sounds more complex than it actually is, as you have to do this through a Chinese company, who liaise with the government for you - for a painfully hefty fee, naturally. The 4 days at the border was our experience, anywhere from 2 to 6 is typical. The time is spent getting Chinese number plates, Chinese driving licenses, Chinese MOTs, various customs and government clearances, etc - it goes on a bit, with each car having a dossier an inch thick about it by the end! However, again this isn't as daunting as is sounds, as one of the requirements for driving your own car in China is that you have a government-authorized 'guide' traveling in one of the cars at all times, and one of the guides jobs is to help get the cars through the red tape.
Security - the more you look into it, the more of a non issue it is. Yes, there's a small chance you could be unlucky, but planning, research and common sense can minimize any risks, and at the end of the day, millions of people live their lives out safely in every country we've traveled through, and it's probably actually more dangerous walking home in London at 2am on a Saturday morning than it is driving across Kazakhstan with your eyes open to the risks (disclaimer - this is not true of a big trip across Africa. Africa is definitely way more dodgy than Asia...).
Right, I think that covers most of the points/questions raised - I'm off to look around some temples...
An absolutely epic story ! 
I now know how my lunchtime here in work will be spent, reading up on this V8Nam Thread.
I now know how my lunchtime here in work will be spent, reading up on this V8Nam Thread.
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