Friends taking a taxi ride around world

The British trio, including Johno Ellison from Leeds, have already completed 32,000 miles and seen 41 countries.

They managed to evade the Taliban in Pakistan, encountered the secret police in Iran and reached Everest Base Camp in the 19-year-old London cab named Hannah.

They reached Sydney and planned to call it a day until a sponsor, GetTaxi, stepped in.

Now they plan to do another 13,000 miles, taking the total to around 45,000.

Mr Ellison, 28, said: “By the time we got to Australia, we were exhausted, but knew we had to accept the challenge from GetTaxi to complete the journey around the world.

“After we carry out a few repairs in San Francisco, we hope she will be running well and we’re looking forward to starting out on the next leg of the journey.

“She even got fumigated before leaving Australia so it will smell a darn sight better when we start out again in a couple of weeks.”

The sponsorship will enable the cab to be shipped from Sydney to San Francisco where they will drive to the east coast.

It will see the taxi being driven through parts of Mexico, cross the Golden Gate Bridge in California, the salt flats of Utah, negotiate oil wells in Texas and along old Route 66 as the crew traverses 20 states to arrive in New York in early March.

From the Big Apple, the cab will be flown across the Atlantic to Tel Aviv, from where the guys will clock up an additional 6,000 miles driving through Israel and eastern Europe to Russia, before heading south to Spain and France to eventually claim the world record for a taxi ride.

So far the three men, who met at Aston University, have raised £10,000 for the Red Cross Society, a figure they hope to double.

They should also break the record for the highest “fare”, estimated at £80,000 for the trip.