Argentine Family’s 16-Year, Six-Continent Road Trip Is the Stuff of Legend

1928 Graham-Paige 612 still going strong some 200k miles later

June 8, 2016 9:00 am EDT

Built by brothers Joseph, Robert and Ray Graham after their acquisition of a Detroit automaking firm in 1928, the Graham-Paige Model 612 is a family car in the truest sense of the term.

Fitting, then, that more than 70 years later, the car would serve as the vessel for the mother of all family road trips, a 16-years-and-counting world tour across six continents.

Argentine couple Herman and Candelaria Zapp initially set off in their Graham-Paige in 2000 to travel from Buenos Aires to Alaska, but the 612 is still cruising to this day … albeit with a few more passengers. The journey has seen the couple welcome four children (Pampa, Tehue, Paloma and Wallaby), travel more than 186,000 miles and live with more than 1,800 host families during their thousands of nights on the road.

Thanks to a leisurely pace (average speed of 30 MPH), the wear-and-tear on the antique Graham-Paige has been relatively light, and the Zapps have been able to support their endeavor largely through royalties from their book.

“From the time we opened the door of this car and sat down everything have changed (sic) in our lives,” the family says.“Live your dreams. If you don’t live it now … so … when?”

For more family photos, check them out on Facebook or head over to Petrolicious.

Via Petrolicious

Meet your guide

Evan Bleier

Evan Bleier

Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including “Maxim,” Bleacher Report and “The Daily Mail.”
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