Textar and Rainier Zietlow Go For Pan-Americana Record

DETROIT, Mich.–In mid-June 2019, long-distance driver Rainer Zietlow is set to attempt to break his own Pan-Americana world record.

The German world record driver plans to set a new long-distance world record on the longest road of the world, the Pan-Americana Highway, which stretches more than 16.000 miles (22500 km) through 14 countries from Alaska to Argentina.

In less than 11 days and 17 hours Rainer Zietlow and his team aim to break their own world record on the Panamericana from 2011 in a Volkswagen Touareg. The car of the German adventurer will be a standard Volkswagen Amarok V6 with 224 hp produced at Volkswagen Argentina. The only modification is an additional fuel tank of 120 liters.

Textar is supporting the team attempting to break this record and also supported Rainer Zietlow’s previous successful long-distance record attempt on the Dakar-Moscow route back in 2017. The Volkswagen Amarok V6 has been kitted out with brake pads by TMD Friction. The OE and copper free brake pads have passed all the tests required to deal with the special challenges.

In the middle of June 2019, Rainer Zietlow and the team will start the world record attempt from Alaska to Argentina by crossing the Darien Jungle between Panama und Colombia in a scheduled cargo plane as the Panamericana is interrupted between these both countries. The road trip can be followed “live” on www.panamericanaworldrecord.com.

Since 2005 Rainer Zietlow supports the international organization “SOS Children`s Villages” with his projects. For each driven kilometer he will donate 15 Euro Cents during his world record drive for a SOS Children’s Village in Goiorere, Brazil.

“Textar customers can now obtain their ABS sensors directly from our European central warehouse in Leverkusen-Hitdorf. After our move to the new central warehouse, we decided to use the newly gained storage space to assume responsibility for the independent distribution of our products. This enables us to better respond to customer requirements and provide them with all components for a successful brake service directly from a single source,” explains Patrick Babiere, Global Category Manager at TMD Friction.

David Kiley
David Kiley

David Kiley is Chief of Content for The BRAKE Report. Kiley is an award-winning business journalist and author, having covered the auto industry for USA Today, Businessweek, AOL/Huffington Post, as well as written articles for Automobile and Popular Mechanics.