'If this book doesn't stir the adventurer in every petrol head, then you're not really a petrol head.'
That's a quote from the Amazon reviews of the middle part of our Road Trip Trilogy - not a bad advert, is it? As is that fact that currently, it's averaging a rating of 4.8/5 on everyone's favourite online purveyor of books. So it can't be a bad read, that's for sure.
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So, what's The Road to the East all about? Simple, it tells the story of the V8Nam Expedition, which saw us drive a couple of V8s from the UK to Vietnam, and then on to Singapore. This latest book sits between our previous two releases - Survival of the Quickest and Pub2Pub, and in doing so, ties them together into a trilogy, which tells the story of fifteen years spent at the cutting edge of adventurous road tripping.
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So, what can you expect if you do find yourself reading The Road to the East in between your own road trips? Well, we'll let you into a little secret. While the main subject of the book is the story of a very simple idea - V8Nam; get a V8, and drive it to Vietnam - this book goes far beyond just telling the story of that rather daft adventure. It also seeks to answer the question of how someone would come to consider such a journey to be a completely rational undertaking, by looking at what led up to V8Nam. From those first uncertain adventures which led us to V8Nam's start line, to the adventure which played out when we fired up the small block Chevy V8 and headed east, it's all there.
The Vehicle
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Car - 1990 Chevrolet Corvette C4
Engine - 5,700cc small-block V8
Gearbox - 4-speed automatic
Power - 300hp / 223KW
Weight - 1470kg
Mileage - 70,000 miles @departure
Modifications - 288 cam, performance ironheads & headers, dixie horn
The Aim
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V8Nam - a drive from England to Vietnam, with a V8.
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Distance - 14,000 miles
Continents - two
Countries - 21
Deserts - Two
Timescale - Five months
The Road to the East was released in April 2021, and you can buy a copy via Amazon by clicking on the image below, or alternatively, signed copies are available through this website's shop section, by clicking here.
The resulting book is a celebration of automotive adventures big and small, near and far. So varied is its subject matter that you never quite know what's coming next, as the prose jumps from the Tibetan Plateau, framed by the Corvette's windscreen, to a Fiat 126 battling through the Arctic winter, or from a three-wheeled rickshaw in Kathmandu to a trip across the frozen Baltic Sea in a Jaguar XJ6. Yep, from Burmese Monks to Kazakh nightclubs; from Moroccan souqs to Icelandic thunderstorms and from flimsy Honda motorbikes to overlanding Rolls Royces, The Road to the East is shaping up to be a love letter to automotive escapades which pretty much has it all.
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When you read The Road to the East, you'll discover that no adventure is too big or too small to get the enthusiasm for the open road flowing, and no vehicle is exempt from being a potential source of amazing memories. Despite the fact that the book is focused on a rather unsubtle, souped up Corvette, if there's one thing you'll take from it, it's that automotive adventure isn't about the size of your wallet or motor. It's about your state of mind. Though we'll level with you; having an old Corvette and five months off work certainly helps.
Exploring the temples of Angkor Wat.
Into the Kazakh dusk...
The V8Nam route.
Exploring the temples of Angkor Wat.