AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!

Illustration for article titled AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!

Alright, sorry about the false start earlier. I wanted to make sure I had the right photos for this reveal! But at long last it is time to meet the cars!!!!

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But first, a brief summary: Due to what I can only assume is a form of insanity, my friends and I have a “hobby” where we fly to a place, buy cheap cars, and then drive them on an epic road trip. We’ve done it before. Twice, actually. And now we’re doing it again. Due to some legal issues, we decided this time to buy the cars in advance and have them shipped, keeping them secret from each other and the world.

Until now.

The reveal happened like this...

George and I left the VRBO in the rental and Taylor left about 10 mins behind us in his secret car. George and I arrived at the terminal and I went to pay for the storage. That done, we waited for them to get pulled from the storage lot.

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And then a white Toyota Celica with Texas plates pulled up.

WAIT WHAT?!

All this time I’d hoped that Taylor would buy something small and sporty, but secretly knew he would probably go “on brand” and buy a small Japanese truck of some sort....

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Illustration for article titled AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!
Photo: Taylor

He didn’t!

I cannot tell you how happy I was to see this thing! Manual too!!

As we were going over Taylor’s car, the woman from the terminal comes over and says our cars are just beyond this gate.

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Ok....

Well... the first car was mine. Which I’ve covered here:

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Then came............. this......... thing.

Illustration for article titled AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!
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I don’t know what to say about this. How can a car look so... fruity and yet kinda hardcore at the same time? Well... however that is possible, here is George’s 2003 Suzuki Grand Vitara Chevrolet Tracker. Not only the newest of the three, but the newest of any of our cheap car challenge cars to date.

Illustration for article titled AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!
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Honestly the inside looks pretty minty, despite the obvious lack of a third pedal... and a transfer case. It looks like a super solid car overall!

What what?! How is it that of the three of us, I am the only one with a car driving all four wheels?! George and Taylor were hard convinced they needed 4WD/AWD for resale in Alaska and I didn’t care. WHAT A TWIST!

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Interestingly we did get front, rear, and all wheel drive. Also interestingly all of us have 2.xL engines. George has a 2.5L V6, I have a 2.4L T5, and Taylor 2.?L I4.

(We haven’t figured out what engine Taylor’s car has in it yet.)

So there you have it! Three cheap cars, 18 days, 2,500 miles.

I look forward to telling you more about these cars and their struggles over the next couple weeks!

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Wish us luck!

Illustration for article titled AlCan Adventure: Meet the cars!!!