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Motoring

World oldest car stops over in Arusha

Staff Writer

The world’s oldest car has just passed in Arusha on its way to Moscow, Russia in the Nine-Month journey across the world.

“I’m single, with neither wife nor children, choosing to spend most of my time by going on adventures,” said Mr Constantine Mandylas, who made a stop-over at the Golden Rose Hotel in Arusha after a five-month journey in a Ford, Model T vintage, said to have been manufactured in 1913.

Mr Mandylas who has a degree in Criminology, is not exactly as single, because he regards the 100 year-old car as his ‘other half.’ Just like a wife, the trophy car needs much ‘attention and maintenance!’

His journey, which started in Melbourne, Australia last October (2011), the 21st and is expected to be completed next June (2012) is being conducted to commemorate a historic motoring epic completed almost a century ago.

A 100 year old motorcar Ford T arrived in Arusha last week on its way to Moscow.
The car driver by an Australian, Constantine Mandylas  is heading for Moscow and the destination
will be reached  in June this year. Above, antique’s  The driver explaining the operation of the Vehicle at the
Golden Rose parking lot  to Walter Maeda former  chairman Arusha Motor Sport.

In 1912, two men, an Australian Mr Francis Birtles and a Russian Mr Andrei Nagel made similar expeditions, each starting on opposite sides of the globe set off on two of the greatest motoring journeys ever completed.

Birtles became the first person to make a west-east crossing of the Australian continent by car, a car mostly made from wood with a one cylinder engine, while Nagel turned out to be the first contestant to cross the Monaco Rally finish line in his Russian-built sports car.

“This year marks the 100th anniversary of this historical race, and what better way to celebrate it than by embarking on my own cross-country drive in a car made from the same era,” explained Mr Mandylas.

And it is not his first adventure either; “I have been planning this journey for a couple of years now. I’ve done something similar to this before, where I drove a 1961 Russian-made Moskvitch 407 from Kharkov, Ukraine, to Corfu, Greece, via Romania and Bulgaria in 2007”.

“I drove 3 500 kilometers across Australia from Melbourne to Perth, where I took a flight to South Africa and had the car shipped to Durban,” he said and from the Kwa-Zulu Natal port he drove through Kosi Bay, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and onto Tanzania.

A stop-over at the center point between Cape-Town and Cairo City, brought him to Arusha and after here the next lengthy stop over will be in Ethiopia, after which he is to ride into the Middle East.

“So far I have not come across any major challenges since leaving Melbourne last October, but I will face difficult times when I have to drive through the Middle East.

“Depending on the situation there I might have to ship the car from Egypt and fly to Ukraine.”

He said another hurdle he foresaw with driving through the Middle East, with countries riddled with conflict, was the bureaucracy involved in applying for visas.

“I plan on reaching Moscow in June and at this stage I am travelling alone, but I have not had car problems so far because parts for this vehicle are easily accessible,” he said.

Mandylas, ‘Melbourne-to-Moscow’ expedition will cover more than 20,000 kilometers taking him through nearly 15 countries across four continents. He boasts that  no car made before World War I, has ever been driven from Australia to Russia (or vice-versa) through the African continent.