A pair of British drivers have set a new record in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, becoming the first people to drive the full length of the Asian Highway, a journey that took 49 days and covered 16,000 kilometres.

Richard Meredith (58) and Phil Colley (42) embarked on the drive to raise awareness of road safety in the 18 countries they visited, as well as generating money for UNICEF.

The drive started in Japan on June 25th, they sailed to South Korea and then drove to China, which took 18 days to cross.

Next on the agenda were Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey where they reached the end of the Asian Highway in Istanbul. Driving through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, France and to the UK completed the journey.

The Road safety element of the initiative is called 'Driving home road safety 2007', and the pair point out that during the length of their journey no less than 150,000 people would have been killed on the world's roads - including 25,000 children - and that many of these fatalities are preventable.

The campaign is being masterminded by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and UNICEF.

Aston Martin will be auctioning the V8 Vantage in which the trip was undertaken, and donating the proceeds to the initiative.

- REUTERS