1) 1955 Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition
A pair of Series 1 Land Rovers were plucked straight from the production line—with a few mods, naturally—to transport six Oxford and Cambridge Uni students from London to Singapore.
Yep, elbows very much in for this one—the desert between Damascus and Baghdad alone took 14 hours in quite hot temperatures. Upon reaching the ‘Ledo’ road between Burma and India, the crew had to keep an eye out for thieves and…headhunters. Not manic ad executives, but actual headhunters. Yikes.
2) 1972 Camel Trophy USSR
The first-gen Disco took on over 1,600km through the USSR as part of the Camel Trophy. And judging by that picture above, it took to it like a happy Labrador in a muddy pond.
3) 1972 Trans-America Expedition
A pair of Rangies managed almost 29,000km spanning the length of America, from Alaska to Cape Horn. Indeed, it took a full 99 days to cover the Darien Gap alone. No word on how long it’d take one to traverse the treacherous and equally infamous Watford Gap.
4) 1995 Hannibal Trail
This one recreated Hannibal’s journey from France to Italy on an elephant. The second-gen Range Rover was the modern equivalent and we’re not going to make any jokes about the analogy of elephants and Range Rovers, no siree.
Especially not when said elepha—sorry, Range Rover managed climbs of more than 3,000 meters above sea level. Don’t make jokes. It won’t forget them.
5) 1998 London to Paris
This one was a biggie, with two preproduction Discovery 2s traveling some 30,000km, taking on massive temperatures, road hazards, ‘gun-toting militia,’ and—gasp—monkeys. Monkeys!
6) 2006 G4 Challenge
Barring the fitment of—cue advertising voice—‘Genuine Land Rover Accessories!’—these Disco 3s were standard, and spent 28 days traveling 4,000km across Thailand, Laos, Brazil, and Bolivia.
7) 2012 Journey of Discovery
This expedition deployed the actual 1,000,000th Discovery built—a fourth-gen car—taking on around 12,900km across 50 days from Birmingham to Beijing. Unknown until now, most of those days were spent trying to navigate the Midlands’ fearsome Spaghetti Junction*.
*Not really, but it wouldn’t be surprising.
8) 2013 Silk Trail
Sure, you can go to Millbrook to test out your soon-to-be-released new motor. Or you can take it 16,800km from Solihull to Mumbai. Land Rover did just that with the then-new Range Rover Hybrid, though rest assured Millbrook is still fine. We think.
9) 2017 Land Rover Experience Tour Peru
Not a bad view, eh? This one used the current Disco 5, taking on mountains, jungles, and desert. Best not to look down, one suspects.
10) 2020 Defender, Namibia
Yeah, we did this one, too. Read our review of the rather excellent new Defender, and watch the video of Top Gear’s own Namibian adventure. Also, look! An elephant!
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.