cruiseroutfit
Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
I totally get it and I understand what your saying. Make it happen, I may just show up (in a Toyota
). I too think there is a viable market for a Trophy event. 
Camel Trophy
- Thread starter Scott Brady
- Start date
I totally get it and I understand what your saying. Make it happen, I may just show up (in a Toyota
). I too think there is a viable market for a Trophy event. 
El Solis
Adventurer
I know for a fact that the Nevada Trophy was cancelled purely because not enough participants. (The organizer is also my friend and mechanic). They needed 4-6 more trucks. The problem was the economy. Hard for people to drive 100's-1000's of miles in trucks that get horrible MPGs for a few days and then home again. So for anyone interested just set aside a week in June/July and sign up early so that there won't be any cancellation.
Oilworker
Explorer
2 years ago I suggested two different adventure trophy style events to people visiting me at the LRO Stand at Billing and the week after.
One event was the aforementioned trip in Russia and the other was more like a long distance race.
The interest was amazing and I still have 3 guys who told me they just need 3 months advance notice and will be there where ever it is.
I wouldn't concentrate on "sponsorship" or "monetary support" in the planning stages for a simple reason: We need to do it first and prove that we can do it and that people are interested in this kind of adventure.
What we need now are two things:
a) a set of simple rules
b) two countries for such an event, I would suggest Canada and Russia.
c) for the first events no more than 5-10 cars, no matter the brand but well prepared for such an expedition, because it´s just that.
As mentioned before it won't be about winning but about achieving the task together as a team and get all cars to the finish line.
With today´s possibilities we can easily spread daily media bits during the event and thus attract potential sponsors, too.
So long,
Robert
One event was the aforementioned trip in Russia and the other was more like a long distance race.
The interest was amazing and I still have 3 guys who told me they just need 3 months advance notice and will be there where ever it is.
I wouldn't concentrate on "sponsorship" or "monetary support" in the planning stages for a simple reason: We need to do it first and prove that we can do it and that people are interested in this kind of adventure.
What we need now are two things:
a) a set of simple rules
b) two countries for such an event, I would suggest Canada and Russia.
c) for the first events no more than 5-10 cars, no matter the brand but well prepared for such an expedition, because it´s just that.
As mentioned before it won't be about winning but about achieving the task together as a team and get all cars to the finish line.
With today´s possibilities we can easily spread daily media bits during the event and thus attract potential sponsors, too.
So long,
Robert
El Solis
Adventurer
how about start with a few days in the middle of nowhere Nevada, teams with a driver, navigator and a support vehicle (2 more people for a total of 2 vehicles any make and 4 person teams), geocaching for points and special vehicle and non vehicle tasks for points. big name sponsor already in place, insurance in place, land permits in place, experience (been going on for more than a decade) in place? I don't want to get ahead of myself here but there was even some TV coverage in place with a very public start etc. sound interesting? sound like a great start? I have no financial or business affiliation with the event (I will be providing medical coverage for the event, on my own $, not paid, no SWAG, nothing, just a few days in the desert). This can happen this summer! It is the Nevada Trophy, the link is above in one of the previous posts. It may not be the scale you are hoping for but it could be? get enough teams, enough interest and viola. So all of you sitting on the bench saying I could do that, get up and get going. practice at home and show up and have fun.
All great points guys:
My take.
Robert, I agree keep it simple the first year, simple rule set and and only 10 or so vehicles. I'm not sure on Russia, I couldn't possibly organize one from here. I'd like to keep it in NA for a couple of years. I also agree about not concentrating on money or sponsors completely, but an event of this scope will need some seed money, and that has to come form somewhere. So, unless you are incredibly wealthy or have a club and/or association behind you that can fund such an event...(Also, anyone that comes on board to fund the set up would have to be able to potentially absorb that loss too)
Having organized or been involved in organizing multi-day and week long events, there is a lot of work that goes on before teams even turn their first wheel! I also agree with Robert that the goal would be to ALL finish together, and overcoming all tasks as a group! With the internet and social media today, what with Google+, Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. we can get the word out as well.
My brother was a cameraman for major motion pictures and TV and worked in conjunction with others who shot Survivor, and I worked for a few years in TV production in the late '80s, so we've talked about this too. (He wheels in a '65 Series IIA) There are a lot of crappie car/off-road/adventure shows on TV. I think Oilworker nailed it, it would take way to much energy to "make a pitch". Besides, I doubt they'd bite considering we're a non-entity with no "street cred". (No one's named van Munster or Burnett!)
As far as what El Solis has said, I too agree, if teams are interested, they should definitely sign up for NVTR. It's not my cup of tea, but I would support the event, most likely as a volunteer. For me, having gone through the web site, looked at the photos and watched the videos, it's not as "expedition" as I would like. It sure looks like s lot of fun though! It's definitely more of a winner take all competition, and I didn't see a lot of teams helping other teams. It does look incredibly well organized and the teams really looked like they were enjoying themselves.
I really want something more grueling, more end goal driven, more camaraderie, and more purpose built rigs. Working hard all day on a gut wrenching trail, overcoming challenges, and building friendships. All the while competing head to head with other teams all driving different marques, but when push comes to shove, working together as a collective to build that bridge so EVERYONE can get through to base camp! As you roll into base camp for the night, the smell of steaks and camp cooking waft over, as you set up your shelter. Then everyone heads to the mess tent and chows down, over talk & stories of the day. Photos are shown, points given out along with critique on the challenges, then a brief overview of the next days route. You head to your cot, drifting off to sleep, dreaming the mornings drivers meeting at 06:00, and what new adventure tomorrow will bring.
Keep up the comments fellows, love the input!
Bedwyr
My take.
Robert, I agree keep it simple the first year, simple rule set and and only 10 or so vehicles. I'm not sure on Russia, I couldn't possibly organize one from here. I'd like to keep it in NA for a couple of years. I also agree about not concentrating on money or sponsors completely, but an event of this scope will need some seed money, and that has to come form somewhere. So, unless you are incredibly wealthy or have a club and/or association behind you that can fund such an event...(Also, anyone that comes on board to fund the set up would have to be able to potentially absorb that loss too)
Having organized or been involved in organizing multi-day and week long events, there is a lot of work that goes on before teams even turn their first wheel! I also agree with Robert that the goal would be to ALL finish together, and overcoming all tasks as a group! With the internet and social media today, what with Google+, Twitter, Pintrest, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. we can get the word out as well.
My brother was a cameraman for major motion pictures and TV and worked in conjunction with others who shot Survivor, and I worked for a few years in TV production in the late '80s, so we've talked about this too. (He wheels in a '65 Series IIA) There are a lot of crappie car/off-road/adventure shows on TV. I think Oilworker nailed it, it would take way to much energy to "make a pitch". Besides, I doubt they'd bite considering we're a non-entity with no "street cred". (No one's named van Munster or Burnett!)
As far as what El Solis has said, I too agree, if teams are interested, they should definitely sign up for NVTR. It's not my cup of tea, but I would support the event, most likely as a volunteer. For me, having gone through the web site, looked at the photos and watched the videos, it's not as "expedition" as I would like. It sure looks like s lot of fun though! It's definitely more of a winner take all competition, and I didn't see a lot of teams helping other teams. It does look incredibly well organized and the teams really looked like they were enjoying themselves.
I really want something more grueling, more end goal driven, more camaraderie, and more purpose built rigs. Working hard all day on a gut wrenching trail, overcoming challenges, and building friendships. All the while competing head to head with other teams all driving different marques, but when push comes to shove, working together as a collective to build that bridge so EVERYONE can get through to base camp! As you roll into base camp for the night, the smell of steaks and camp cooking waft over, as you set up your shelter. Then everyone heads to the mess tent and chows down, over talk & stories of the day. Photos are shown, points given out along with critique on the challenges, then a brief overview of the next days route. You head to your cot, drifting off to sleep, dreaming the mornings drivers meeting at 06:00, and what new adventure tomorrow will bring.
Keep up the comments fellows, love the input!
Bedwyr
cdavis3361
Observer
I disagree, we all (mostly) live in America. The folks who live in Madagascar most likely don't consider that an exotic location. North America occupies a significant amount of the worlds land mass, there is plenty of adventure to be had in most of our back yards.
And the planning would be quite a bit less complicated, when compared to a non-national in Russia
Just my opinion
Oilworker
Explorer
Nice to start with but I guess we need a little more "road" or "distance".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canol_Road
The area is pretty promising and good for spectacular images, too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canol_Road
The area is pretty promising and good for spectacular images, too
grimbo
Explorer
Just chucking in my 2c here. I used to run a weekend 4wd weekend event down here many moons ago. The premise was finding GPS locations and then taking a pic to match the one provided. It was restricted to 30 teams. The locations rated in difficulty from 3 being easy to 10 being extreme. So on top of trying to get the most points you also had a time limit and shortest km travelled to contend with.
We had a group of 6 handling the whole event, from initial concept, all promo material, pre runs, road books, organising camping area, catering (3 course meal) etc
This would take most weekends for about 8 months, we would rack up many thousands of kms in pre runs and all of this was only 2 hours from Melbourne where we lived.
So I guess what I am getting at Is there is alot of time involved and that will be multiplied if you are further from home.
There is a lot of personal cost with all pre run scouting trips etc So I'd suggest that you aim for a 2014 event date to give you the time to get it sorted properly because disgruntled competitors will do you no favours.
We were a small club doing this for fun and a bit of revenue to have a Xmas party. We purposely did not offer prizes etc, it was just a trophy. We regularly would get anywhere from 50-60 teams entering but there was no way we could manage an event that size.
Eventually we stopped the event as we couldn't keep offering the time needed to organize it. I still get asked about it even though it's been about 12 years since the last one.
Is it worth doing? Yes, but be prepared for alot of work, time and headaches, especially once you start with prizes and sponsors
We had a group of 6 handling the whole event, from initial concept, all promo material, pre runs, road books, organising camping area, catering (3 course meal) etc
This would take most weekends for about 8 months, we would rack up many thousands of kms in pre runs and all of this was only 2 hours from Melbourne where we lived.
So I guess what I am getting at Is there is alot of time involved and that will be multiplied if you are further from home.
There is a lot of personal cost with all pre run scouting trips etc So I'd suggest that you aim for a 2014 event date to give you the time to get it sorted properly because disgruntled competitors will do you no favours.
We were a small club doing this for fun and a bit of revenue to have a Xmas party. We purposely did not offer prizes etc, it was just a trophy. We regularly would get anywhere from 50-60 teams entering but there was no way we could manage an event that size.
Eventually we stopped the event as we couldn't keep offering the time needed to organize it. I still get asked about it even though it's been about 12 years since the last one.
Is it worth doing? Yes, but be prepared for alot of work, time and headaches, especially once you start with prizes and sponsors
Last edited:
The Rover Shop
Explorer
Okay...been following his thread for a while... I just completed the maya rally (2nd place in the 4wd category.)..) and would be all over another camel style event.. I own 3 camel vehicles and could bring my current one i am travelling the world in and could probably get some of the original camel drivers to come to an event such as this.. I recently did a thing called the Trans America Trail by motorcycle and is a public road trail and could be very challenging for 4 wheel drives.. We could select a portion of tis trail in say Colorado and make a serious go of it without too much hoopla.. I have a friend who was in the rainforest challenge and has ties with warn etc and may be able to pitch this to them for some sponsorship and assistance. And I am sure he would do it as well as some other big name friends. I also have some friends who were instrumental in one car too far and maybe able to generate some interest with a major filming in the event..Alaska would have to be done in the 3 months or so it is not frozen..I maybe able to get overland journal to also do something with it...we need to firm up something a little more than just a bunch of guys who say they would be in...
)..) and would be all over another camel style event.. I own 3 camel vehicles and could bring my current one i am travelling the world in and could probably get some of the original camel drivers to come to an event such as this.. I recently did a thing called the Trans America Trail by motorcycle and is a public road trail and could be very challenging for 4 wheel drives.. We could select a portion of tis trail in say Colorado and make a serious go of it without too much hoopla.. I have a friend who was in the rainforest challenge and has ties with warn etc and may be able to pitch this to them for some sponsorship and assistance. And I am sure he would do it as well as some other big name friends. I also have some friends who were instrumental in one car too far and maybe able to generate some interest with a major filming in the event..Alaska would have to be done in the 3 months or so it is not frozen..I maybe able to get overland journal to also do something with it...we need to firm up something a little more than just a bunch of guys who say they would be in...