Ford Fiesta World Tour

Starting on California’s Santa Monica Pier at one end of Route 66, the journey will cover 25,000km of 20 countries on four continents – and finish at the Australian International Motor Show in 57 days.

It’s a global tour to celebrate the launch of a global car – the first time the Fiesta has been on sale in the US – and will see it roll onto the Sydney motor show stand in October.

And the little Fords on the tour will get a true world education along the way, with stops including Jay Leno’s garage, a machine-gun shooting range and drive-thru wedding chapel in the US, a matchmaking festival in Ireland, a lap of the Nurburgring in Germany, camel races and a women-only car showroom in the Middle-East (where women can apparently buy cars, but are banned from driving).

Asia will welcome the Fiestas with a monks’ blessing, feng-shui quarry and painting elephants, before the cars hit Darwin for their final leg down to Sydney.

Carsguide will be driving for the first few days from Los Angeles, California to Pheonix, Arizona, and following the adventure with daily blogs, galleries and video from intrepid journalists Jeremy Hart, Lucy Denyer and others. Stay tuned...