Quad Squad joins museum collection

One of the three Yamaha Grizzly quads which covered an epic 58,000km in 14 months around the globe has been donated to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney by Yamaha Motor Australia, joining a collection of vehicles used by other Australian adventurers including Dick Smith.

In 2010, the ‘Quad Squad’, which included Sydneysiders Valerio De Simoni (aged 23 years), Jamie Kenyon (aged 24 years) and Ted Davant (aged 26 years), achieved a new world record for the longest ATV journey by riding through 38 countries and covering 58,000km in 14 months. Their journey from, Istanbul to Sydney via Africa smashed the previous record by over 30,000km.

Tragically, the youngest team member Valerio De Simoni was involved in a fatal accident in Malawi, half way through the expedition in March, 2011. However, Jamie and Ted continued the journey-of-a-lifetime in honour of their mate, and officially broke the Guinness World
Record when they rode into Sydney on 22 October 2011.

The Quad Squad Grizzly will be displayed at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre, the Museum’s publicly accessible collection stores in Castle Hill.

The ATV will join the Powerhouse’s historic collection of material from other notable Australian expeditions over the past century that have survived some of the world’s most extreme regions in some of the most daring journeys.

Powerhouse Museum Director, Dr Dawn Casey, said: “It is interesting that more Australians per capita have broken more long distance records by bike, car, plane and boat in some of the world’s most harsh and remote environments.

“I am not sure if it is our climate, outdoor lifestyle, or the fact that we live in such a vast and rugged country that has inspired Australians to go places where no-one else has been and to achieve something amazing.”

Among the famous adventurers whose feats are represented in the Powerhouse collection is Donald Mackay, who in 1899 cycled around Australia covering 17,700km in a new record time of 240 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes. His bike is on display, along with Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor’s Catalina flying boat, Frigate Bird II, in which he piloted the first flight from Australia to South America in 1951 across the vast South Pacific Ocean.

For over 20 years, the helicopter that  Dick Smith flew in 1982 in the first solo circumnavigation of the world was suspended from the roof of the Powerhouse Museum. The small yacht of another solo record-breaker, Dr David Lewis, who sailed his 32 foot (9.7m) Ice Bird in the first single-handed voyage to Antarctica in 1972 is currently undergoing critical restoration work by the Museum.

On display at the Powerhouse Discovery Centre in Castle Hill is a wheel and undercarriage leg from the Lockheed aircraft Lady Southern Cross that pioneer aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith flew in his fatal flight in 1935 when attempting to break the England to Australia speed record.

The handover of the Yamaha ATV will occur on Tuesday, February 28.