The Camel Trophy
Let's be honest: when the Cigarette manufacturer introduced the Camel Trophy in the 1980 they were more than surprised by the public interest generated. What should only have been an one-year event aimed at the german consumers immediately took off as 10000 of people rushed to participate on an event Winston Churchill already discribed as being of "blood, sweat and tears". He was right.
The Camel Trophy started with Jeeps but from it's second year settled firmly on Solihulls finest.
All production models were used with the exception of the new shape Range Rover.
In the table below I listed the years and competitors vehicles. Keep in mind however that these are only a small number of the vehicles used. The main burden of carrying journalists, equipment and spares fell to a fleet of 110's and 130's regardless of what vehicle was the "official" car.
| YEAR | LOCATION | Distance travelled | Participants vehicles | Other Info |
| 1980 | Transamazonica | Route: Belem to Santarem Distance: 1,600 km | 3 Jeep | 3 teams from West Germany |
| 1981 | Sumatra | Route: Medan to Jambi Distance: 1,600 km |
5 Range Rover, 2 door | 3 teams from West Germany |
| 1982 | Papua New Guinea | Route: Mont Hagen to Madang Distace: 1,600 km |
8 Range Rover, 2 door | First year when more than one nation participated: I, D, NL, USA |
| 1983 | Zaire | Route: Kinshasa to Kinsangani Distance: 1,600 km |
14 Series III 88 | NL, P, HK, D, CH, I, E |
| 1984 | Brazil | Route: Transamazonica Highway, Santarem to Manaus | 12 Land Rover 110 | |
| 1985 | Borneo | Route: Samarinda to Balikpapan | 16 Land Rover 90 | |
| 1986 | Australia | Route: Cooktown to Darwin Distance: 3,218 km |
14 Land Rover 90 | |
| 1987 | Madagascar | Route: Diego Suarez to Fort Dauphin Distance: 2,252 km |
14 Range Rover TD | |
| 1988 | Sulawesi | Route: Manado to Ujang Padang Distance: 2,092 km |
12 Land Rover 110 |
|
| 1989 | Amazon | Route: Alta Floresta to Manaus | 14 Land Rover 110 | |
| 1990 | Siberia | Route: Bratsk to Irkutsk Distance: 1500km |
16 Discovery Tdi 3-door | Vehicles: 19 Discoveries, 4 Defender 110 Station Wagons, 5 Defender 127s (3 4-door crewcabs and 2 2-doors--all had a solid,enclosed load bed) |
| 1991 | Tanzania | Route: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Bujumbura,
Burundi Distance: 1,600 km |
17 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1992 | Guyana | Route: Manaus, Brazil to Georgetown, Guyana Distance: 1,600 km |
16 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1993 | Sabah -Malaysia |
Route: Circumnavigation, Kota Kinabalu to Kota Kinabalu |
16 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1994 |
South America Argintina-Paraguay-Chile |
Route: Iguazu Falls, Argentina to Hornitos, Chile |
18 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1995 |
South America Mundo Maya |
Route: Lamanai, Belize through Mexico, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras to Xunantunich, Belize Distance: 1,700 km |
20 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1996 |
Borneo Kalimantan |
Route: Balikpapan to Pontianak Distance: 1850 km |
20 Discovery Tdi 5-door | |
| 1997 | Mongolia | Land Rover Discovery | Last year of the "real" Trophy | |
| 1998 | Chile to Argentinia | Land Rover Freelander |
In February 1999 Worldwide Brands Inc. decided the image of the Camel Trophy was no longer compatible with their targeted consumer group and cancelled their sponsoring. So the Camel Trophy was dead. Read the official 1999 press release here.
In my private opinion this was a big mistake as so many people watched reports from the Trophy and talked to eachother about it thus creating a product relation. But clever marketing strateges decided it wasn't worth bothering with those people. Already the change to the soft side in the 1998 challenge got a rather cold reception by the general public. This however seemed only to confirm the theory of an out-of-date event, at least in those clever minds.
Gentlemen, go back to your studies. Didn't you learn that only a fraction of a percent of an interested group responds to any action call? And how many applications did you get every year for the Trophy? Several 100.000s. Multiply this number at least by 20 to get the number of people interested in the event. Are you really so well off to simply let go a consumer group of several millions?
No more comments on that. I simply hope some CEO will wake up one day to see the disaster.
