The Pan American Friendship Rally took place in 2016
10,338 miles through 27 States in 7 weeks, concentrating on the most scenic roads the USA has to offer.
In planning the rally we plotted the 100 best driving roads onto a map of the USA and then considered how best they could be linked. Taking into account that there were only 35 driving days and that there 37 of the “best routes” covered the overall journey really did live up to the promise of being spectacular throughout. Along the way we drove two of the US’s most iconic routes, Pike’s Peak in Colorado — 12 miles, 156 corners summitting at 14,110 ft; and the “Tail of the Dragon” with 318 curves in 11 miles on the Tennessee / North Carolina border.
In terms of daily mileage the US event averaged 295, differing very little from previous rallies (Panama to Alaska: 265 miles per day; Rallye Med: 238 miles per day; and La Gira Andina: 265 miles per day). However the potential stress factor was considerably lower due to the road quality and the fact that most of the driving was scenic as opposed to historic, avoiding the need to constantly stop and visit heritage sites.
19 cars joined us in total, with 17 doing the entire trip, and two doing part of it. The oldest vehicle dated back to 1953 and included 4 Jaguars, two Aston Martins, two Austin Healeys, a Ferrari, a Bristol and a couple of Mercedes.
For a break down of the trip do check out the diary pages below:
Rallye Med 2010