Arctic Trucks

A team of four Toyota Hiluxs have completed a trip of over 5000km from Novo, a Russian Scientific Station in Antarctica to the Geographic South Pole and back again, making them the first 4x4s to reach the South Pole. The return journey of 2500km from the South Pole to Novo Station was completed in a record 8 days and 17 hours.

The expedition is a joint venture between the UK based Amundsen Omega South Pole Race and Icelandic company Arctic Trucks. Company directors Tony Martin and Emil Grimmson started on the venture after the enormous success of their joint expedition with Top Gear in 2007, which sent the first 4x4s to the Magnetic North Pole - driven by Jeremy Clarkson and James May, and filmed for the Top Gear Polar Special. ! Following the success of this ground breaking trip, the pair decided to start out on an even more daring trip to Antarctica - into unknown territory in one of the world's most hostile environments - the coldest and driest place on Earth.

After learning from the 2007 Top Gear North Pole trip, Arctic Trucks modified the same vehicles - Toyota Hiluxs, for use on the Antarctic Plateau, including over 300 hours of work per car. The  expedition provided safety , medical and media support for the Amundsen Omega South Pole Race, including film crew access to UK based production company Two Four, filming the race for the BBC series 'On Thin Ice' featuring James Cracknell and Ben Fogle, and a Norwegian film crew filming a documentary for NRK.

The 4x4s departed from Novo Station on on 21st December 2008, and arrived at the South Pole on 21st January 2009. After remaining with all of the race competitors at the South Pole until their flight home arrived, the vehicles set off on the return journey at 02:00am on 30th January 2008, arriving at 1700 on 7th February 2009. The team were greeted at Novo station with cheers, flares and champagne to celebrate the success of the expedition. Tony Martin commented "It is an incredible achievement, we are breaking boundaries here, no one has ever completed a trip like this before, we are making history".

The arduous route to the Pole included extremely hostile terrain, travelling through crevasse fields and mountains, and following an unusually high amount of snowfall, the 4x4s encountered deep snow on the plateau, where temperatures plummeted below -40C still air, and -60C with wind chill. In just two months, Novo received the same amount of snow fall they would normally receive in five years. Arctic Truck's Driver-mechanics Gísli Jónsson and Hjalti Vigfús Hjaltason were on hand to provide constant modifications during the trip, including fixing break downs of five transfer cases, six wheel axles and six shock absorbers.

The team are now safely at Novo station, waiting for a flight to Cape Town before returning to the UK and Iceland. They hope this trip will open a brand new method of travel in Antarctica, encouraging people to use 4x4s as an alternative to current methods of transport as they are cleaner, and 5 times more fuel efficient than other vehicles presently used. In the future they hope to join with scientific research expeditions.