How 2 men claimed absurd record by driving an old 3-wheel car the length of Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, April 22, (AP): Englishman Ollie Jenks remembers when his friend first pitched the idea to him. "It was so ridiculous I couldn't say no,” Jenks said.

The proposal by his Canadian buddy Seth Scott, a fellow lover of cars and crazy adventures, was for them to drive a decades-old British-made Reliant Robin car from London to the southern tip of Africa - a 14,000-mile (22,500-kilometer) journey through 22 countries - to set a record for the longest trip in a three-wheeled vehicle.

Reliant Robins have cultlike status in the UK as humble three-wheelers that, in Jenks' words, were designed to go to the shops and back in 1970s Britain. They went out of production in the early 2000s but remain loved in British culture, especially after a Reliant appeared as the Trotter brothers' trusty but battered yellow van in the hugely popular sitcom "Only Fools and Horses.”

Yet you couldn't find a less suitable vehicle to take thousands of miles through tropical jungles, mountain ranges and deserts down the west side of Africa. And that's precisely why Jenks went for the absurd plan.

Sheila, the silver three-wheeler - one of the last Reliant Robins to be built - was acquired specifically for the adventure. Jenks and Scott set off in October with a can of fuel and a few essential supplies strapped to Sheila's small roof, and a large amount of blind hope that they would somehow make it to Cape Town, South Africa, near the bottom of the world.

"No power steering, no air con, and it doesn’t do well up hills or down them. It is the most unsuitable car for probably any journey,” Jenks said in an unkind assessment of Sheila's abilities. "We made friends with the designer of this car, and he’s scared to take it any more than 20 miles.”

Jenks and Scott ignored all the advice and took Sheila on the epic journey over four-and-a-half months that cost in the region of $40,000 to $50,000, Jenks said.

They had help from sponsors and crowd funding, and documented the journey on an Instagram page that pulled in nearly 100,000 followers under the title: "14,000 miles, 3 wheels, 0 common sense.” They arrived in Benin during an attempted coup.

They skirted through northern Nigeria as the US launched airstrikes on Islamic State targets. They were given a military escort for about 300 miles (480 kilometers) through a region of separatist violence in Cameroon.

"Imagine this car in a military convoy,” Jenks said. And there were many brushes with traffic-related danger, including when an overtaking bus almost flattened Sheila against a cliff face in Congo.