By “Caprice,” I refer to the Holden Caprice that shares its architecture with the now-defunct Australian-built Pontiac G8, not the American sedan discontinued by Chevrolet in 1996. After studying the cost of buying an RV, the van der Weegen family realized it would be cheaper to ship the car and buy a camper to tow behind it.
In total, the car covered more than 20,500 miles, reliably crossing the Nevada desert in 116-degree heat, trudging through Russian winters at 40F below zero, and climbing heights of 10,000 feet above sea level. The rear-drive 3.6L V6 Caprice even managed to plow through blinding snowstorms without snow tires or chains.
Despite serious concerns about their safety and security (with several bribes required to pass Russian police checkpoints), they finally made it, completing their journey just north of Mongolia in Chita, Russia.
“It’s 10,000 kilometres and we basically had 28 days to do it in and most days we tried to do 500 kilometres,” he says. “There were times when there was complete whiteout. It was snowing, the road was covered in snow, the sides of the road were covered in snow. Those sorts of times were fairly scary.”
Then there were the challenges of Russian-style policing. “We had to pay quite a few bribes to keep going,” van der Weegen says. “Every 100 to 150 kilometres they’d have a police checkpoint and would be checking things on people’s cars.”
“Even if there was nothing wrong they’d put the hard word on you. I think the cheapest I got away with was 200 roubles[about $6.80]. The most I paid was 1000.”
Above: -40F temperatures in Russia
Above: Arriving in Moscow
Above: Parked at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France
Above: In Keystone, South Dakota heading to Mount Rushmore. Note the Holden badge and Australian license plate.
The full article is absolutely worth reading:
http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-news/the-globetrotting-holden-20110331-1cgkq.html
He posted a few responses and additional photos at GMInsideNews under the name “OzCaprice”:
dude if i would have seen a real holden in South Dakota I would have chit myself.
I’m sure this would be a perfect road trip sedan. The G8 is huge inside and very comfortable, and this is even bigger!