As the best athletes in the world go for gold in Tokyo it got us thinking about the Olympics of driving – so we dived into our archives to bring you winning drives for the Detour Olympics.

High drive

The road from La Paz to Coroico begins at a literally breath-taking 3,640m. It’s genuinely hard to breathe in the thin air until you become acclimatised. As if that isn’t tough enough the route into the Jungas is known as “El Camino del Muerte” – the Death Road. “Dramatically changing weather, visibility and the sheer altitude combine to make this road a daily heart-stopping challenge for locals and adventurers alike,” says Nik Berg.
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Long jump

During a record-setting lap of Australia John Mahoney inadvertently took to the air in a Holden Commodore.  “I've never been a fan of off-roading, especially the high-speed-unintentional-kind, but as we soared through the air at a little over 200km/h (120mph), at a cruising altitude of around half a metre, I had plenty of time to ponder just what part of the Australian outback's striking ochre-coloured landscape we were about to explore,” says John.
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Marathon

In Olympic terms a Marathon is 26 miles. In Detour terms it’s 1,145 miles through 12 countries in a single day. “You see I was on a driving mission — to set a new world record, travelling to the most countries in a day. Short of a private helicopter, it was a way of showing off how versatile and task friendly a car can be,” explains Simon Heptinstall.
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Sport Climbing

There are few better locations for a spot of Sport(s) Car Climbing than the French Alps. And there are few better cars to attempt this than an Alpine A110 as Dan Trent discovered on “an Alpine Rally ‘greatest hits’ of some of the most iconic passes. Suffice to say, a few squiggles on the map do not do justice to the scale of this itinerary.”
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Triathlon

As multi-discipline drives go the Sea to Sky Highway in Canada’s British Columbia is a definite winner. You begin on the city streets of Vancouver, climbing up the Pacific coastline before heading up into the mountains. The road is “Nothing short of magic,” says Nik Berg. “Through its 100 miles of gradual climbing, its flowing curves, sensational vistas and a couple of fabulous pit stops it turned a drive in a dreary Hyundai Santa Fe into one of my most memorable experiences.”
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