Rainer Zietlow

KUWAIT: To share his experience of driving from the southern tip of South Africa to the North Cape in Norway in record time, Rainer Zietlow was invited by one of the tour's sponsors, 3M, to meet and engage with his fans and supporters in Kuwait. Zietlow spoke about his tour at a press conference held yesterday at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

In Sept 2015, Zietlow and his team drove his Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI from Cape Agulhas in South Africa, the southernmost tip of Africa, towards the northernmost point of Europe, Nordkapp in Norway. Driving through 19 countries, including some in the Middle East, over 18,000 km, the team reached their destination in record breaking time of 9 days, 4 hours and 8 minutes.

"I am very excited to be in Kuwait today to meet and engage with my many fans and supporters who inspired me along the way to register another world record in this Cape2Cape annual challenge. 3M is one of our key sponsors and I would like to thank them once again for playing an important role in this success, as its paint protection solution ensured that the Volkswagen car endured the rigors of this grueling drive," said Rainer Zietlow.

This was a successful season and tour by Zietlow's team. "This year I didn't face any problems, so I was able to register a world record. Last year, we had an accident which made our tour much longer - 21 days. Also the weather was nice this year as there was no snow or rain. We were three drivers, two from Germany and one from the US, and we were driving 24 hours, only stopping for toilet breaks and passport checks. One of us was at the wheel every five hours. So usually two were sleeping and one driving," he told Kuwait Times.

World record

Since 2011, Zietlow is driving a Volkswagen Touareg, and earlier drove other models, but always Volkswagen. "We had half of our vehicle covered with the new protection layer and the other half without it, the vehicle shows scratches on this half. Since 2011, I'm using this protection on the vehicle," stressed Zietlow.

3M has been supplying innovative, value-added solutions to the automotive industry for almost 100 years. Hundreds of 3M products are used in the manufacturing of vehicles, ranging from consumable products in assembly plant operations, to those engineered into body, exterior, interior, power train, and chassis components. Rainer used 3M's innovative Paint Protection Film on the Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI which he drove during his Cape2Cape challenge.

"We are very excited to host Rainer Zietlow and his team once again to interact and engage with his fans and supporters from the Middle East region," said AbdulHalim Sayyed, Marketing Specialist of Automotive Aftermarket Division and Automotive Division at 3M Gulf. "At 3M, we provide innovative paint protection films that are the choice for NASCAR race teams and car manufacturers and we are proud that world record holders like Rainer Zietlow are using our products and solutions to help them achieve their goals," he added.

Zietlow and his team drove through 19 countries - South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. The team flew the Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI from Amman, Jordan to Adana in Turkey for the short flight over Syria. With this feat, the Cape2Cape 2.0 team beat their own existing world record of 21 days and 16 hours between Nordkapp and Cape Agulhas, which was achieved last year.

By Nawara Fattahova