Citation
Gamble, C.J. (1998), "Book Reviews. Coleman's Drive: From Buenos Aires to New York in a Vintage Baby Austin", European Business Review, Vol. 98 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.1998.05498fab.017
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1998, MCB UP Limited
Book Reviews. Coleman's Drive: From Buenos Aires to New York in a Vintage Baby Austin
Book reviews
Coleman's Drive: From Buenos Aires to New York in a Vintage Baby Austin
John ColemanNew European Publications1996260 pp.ISBN 1-872410-06-5£10.00
In a 1925 Austin Seven, the Baby Austin, produced in Longbridge, Birmingham, registration number MO 6320, John Coleman embarked, solo, on a voyage of faith with the odds stacked against him. Inspired by the great Tschiffely who made the journey with two horses, Coleman travelled up the entire continent of South, Central and North America, departing from Buenos Aires on 15 November 1959, and arriving in New York on 3 June 1960. He traversed Argentina, Chile, Peru the land of the Incas, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and finally eastwards across the United States to New York. The journey was perilous, and Coleman had to cope with pumas, savage and hungry dogs, wild hogs, huge threatening spiders, deadly coral snakes, earthquakes and intense heat. He had to negotiate these perils whilst being inflicted with dental problems, boils and bouts of severe sickness to the extent of vomiting blood and portions of intestine. In addition to these adversities, he also encountered bandits and rogues, not forgetting the considerable language problems. Coleman climbed higher than Mont Blanc. He drove over the Andes without the help of oxygen, crossed arid deserts, jungles, swamps and snake-infested areas. Over most of this terrain there were no roads.
Coleman was nicknamed "Barba Roja" in newspaper reports, but it was some time before the significance of this became apparent to him, for "Barbs Roja, Red Beard, was a notoriously blood-thirsty pirate of the old days of Argentina" (p. 24).
The book vividly depicts the fortitude, strength and courage of both the Baby Austin and its driver. It would be more appropriate to write "his or her driver" for this little car developed a personality of its own, from the moment it was rescued from a ditch in a field near Oxford to the moment of triumph when driver and car reached the Empire State Building. There Coleman imagined he "heard the little Austin heave a sigh of relief when, recalling its memories of the Andes, it realised that it was not going to be expected to climb up it" (p. 255).
In what striking contrast to the perilous adventure was John Coleman's appearance on the American television show "To tell the truth" in which viewers had to detect the true adventurer from a number of fake explorers who presented their stories. John Coleman was once again the winner, for no-one believed that his story was real!
This is a fascinating book, of great cultural, historic and geographical value, with 30 photographs many of which were taken by the author.
Cynthia J. Gamble