Anybody heard of the London to Sydney marathon?

[PranK]

This sounds both insane and awesome!

 

ABC News: The woman who raced a beat-up Volvo from London to Sydney — and won glory.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-12/london-to-sydney-car-race-marathon-1968/10872882

 

[KiwiRS4T]

I'm afraid I am old enough to remember it. Not Ford's finest hour - it was won by  a Hllman Hunter!

[Rusty Nuts]

I remember the 1977 one, I serviced the Subaru 4wd  driven by Yoshi Takaoka and Nori Koseki when it arrived in Sydney, I also was Yoshi Takaoka's service crew for the 1977 and 1978 Southern Cross Rallies, we built the cars at the North Ryde Headquarters of Subaru Australia. The distance covered by this car was over 30,000km. From memory we came 19th in a field of 70 cars there was 25 DNF's. The only Australian built car to finish was a Torana in 26th. A Datto 180B SSS beat us by one place.

[PranK]

Thats freaking cool Steve. How awesome to be a part of that!

[djr81]

21 hours ago, PranK said:

 

This sounds both insane and awesome!

 

ABC News: The woman who raced a beat-up Volvo from London to Sydney — and won glory.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-12/london-to-sydney-car-race-marathon-1968/10872882

 

 

https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/sport/Race-Across-the-World-John-Smailes-9781760632533

[Rusty Nuts]

1 hour ago, PranK said:

Thats freaking cool Steve. How awesome to be a part of that!

Thanks Christian, I was just a cog in the wheel, Nori and Yoshi were awesome blokes and it was our efforts in the 1970's that led Subaru to create the factory Rally team that was so successful with the Legacy GT from 1980. The 1977 car was a Subaru GSR which was built at Ryde for the Southern Cross, I was told to head over to the car storage area and pick a "Good one in white paint, bring it to the workshop and disassemble it" We seam welded the strut towers and rear shock mounting area's,fitted roll bars, reassembled with Mag wheels. Then took it to Manly Repair Centre and used their Dyno to squeeze every drop of power out of the engine. The good ol' days.