Texas. No country for old men. A place where everything that does live will cut you, stick in you or try to eat you. Zig-zagging through one of the toughest terrains in the Northern Hemisphere, whilst avoiding any feral hogs, might not seem like the most obvious place for a Rolls Royce Phantom. Well, it wasn’t until Lusso Magazine decided to to pair up adventurer Russ Malkin and VH1 Vogue’s Male Model of the Year Charley Speed. Once given the enviable task of creating the ultimate road trip, weird stuff like that just kind of happened to them.
Russ, having travelled the world with Ewan McGregor on Long Way Round, is used to the harshest terrains and sleeping rough in remote locations. Charley Speed doesn’t camp. He is a contributor to the international luxury magazine Lusso, a Britain’s Next Top Model judge and was VH1 Vogue’s Male Model of the Year. Putting the two men together might not seem the obvious choice, but to us it seemed ideal.
Decamping from London’s prestigious Dorchester Hotel, taking on the challenge of racing motorbikes, supercars, Nascars, yachts and jets through Europe and the USA, the pair clock up some serious miles on some serious machines. Someone’s got to do it, and luckily Charley and Russ are equipped with the knowledge and experience. As soon as Charley passes his motorbike license, that is.
A gritty conversation or two with Italy’s road traffic police, a couple of rather fancy spas, some rodeo cattle tackling and an NFL football linebacker-pummeling later, the duo will find out who has emerged victorious. There can be only one. And one other – who will have to hightail it back to the UK, dejected, but at least with a smooth post-spa complexion.
The series lands on Monday August 10th, 9pm on the Travel Channel. For now, we hope you enjoy the trailer. And yes. Of course Charley (who was VH1 Vogue’s Male Model of the Year) is wearing moisturiser.
Road Rivals is out on the Travel Channel, August 10th 2015 at 9pm.
Freeview Channel 42, Freesat Channel 405, Sky Channel 249 / 251 and Virgin Channel 288. For more information visit the Travel Channel website. Follow @RoadRivalsTV on Twitter for more information.
Daniel Sharp
Over 20 years, Daniel has had a unique career blending both media and technology. Having founded Lusso magazine (which has became Europe’s largest luxury travel title with licenced versions in Russia and Indonesia) he went on to produce and direct high end luxury and adventure travel content that have earnt him three Emmy nominations for networks including HBO, Disney, History, Channel, National Geographic, The CW, Channel 4, The BBC, ITV and many more.