There will be plenty of action at London’s Hampton Court Palace for classic car and rally enthusiasts as 80 crews with cars from 1928 to 1976 prepare for their 1,600 mile marathon drive to Lisbon. Come along to spectate on Saturday 14 October: you’ll find a mouthwatering array of cars as they begin to gather from around 10.00 am for their grand 1.00 pm send-off.

A vintage Bentley, Lagonda and Rolls Royce from the grand era of motoring will be rubbing shoulders with more modern machinery: a clutch of Austin Healey 3000s, MGAs, TRs and Jaguars; a cheeky Renault Dauphine, a Volkswagen Beetle. Then again at the other end of the scale there’s the immense muscle of a 1969 TVR Tuscan V8. Just take a look at the entry list to understand the excitement we’re all anticipating!

The 80 London starters join up with another 50 crews at Bilbao - for a second send-off from in front of the city’s iconic Guggenheim Museum at 10.00am Monday. Read more about their route through Spain and Portugal on the Information Sheet (link), and come back to these pages day-by-day for our regular progress reports and interim results.

Some crews and cars to look out for:

The first car off the line at Hampton Court Palace at 1.00pm on Saturday 14 October will be the 1936 Lagonda LG45 belonging to Roy Williams. This splendid car has a long competition history: it was rebodied from its original 4-seater Tourer configuration in the late 1940s for hillclimb and track competition, and was used in Vintage Sports Car Club events until the 1980s. The previous owner to Roy was the then Editor of High Life magazine, Peter Hyman, who used the car to compete at hillclimbs such as Prescott - and also to drive backwards and forwards to Spain. In its current ownership the car has continued its competition tradition, nowadays in long distance rallies which include HERO’s Classic Malts Reliability Trial, the Monte Challenge, and the VSCC’s Measham rallies.

This impressive Lagonda originally ran in the 1936 French Grand Prix for the Lagonda works team. Its extremely experienced crew have been rallying for many years, in events which include the famous Mille Miglia, LE JOG, and the Monte Challenge. They have recently returned from the major classic event of 2000, the epic Round the World rally.

Phillipe and Joseph were the winners of the 1999 Liège-Rome-Liège rally, and second in the same year on the Mountain Rally in the French Pyrenees. But the car’s history is just as impressive. It was delivered from the factory in May 1939 to racing driver Rudolf Langer, and was raced for some eleven years in its home country of Czechoslovakia. Langer sold the car on to the famous Czech racing driver Koaman Jaraslav, who kept it in Prague until 1967. Phillipe Burckhardt has owned the car since 1968, and has continued its use in historic racing, rallying and hillclimbing all over Europe.

This was one of the prototype cars at the beginning of the MGA Coupé production run. There was just one right-hand drive model produced (this one), and another five which were left hand drive for export to the USA. It is believed that this particular car became the team reconnaissance car for the 1957 Monte Carlo Rally, after which it in turn was sold to the US. It was used for competition. Among many other events, it took part in the Carrera Panamericana, by which time it was fitted (improbably) with a Chevrolet straight six engine. It is now “back to normal” with the usual 1,489 ‘B’series engine.

John Blanckley and Tony Davies make a formidable pairing. In 1998 they won a gold medal, and put in the best overall performance, on HERO’s London - Cape Town rally. Tony has been navigating his way to an impressive number of excellent finishes for many years. This time next year, crew and car will be on the start line in Rio de Janeiro for another epic - HERO’s 28,000km Inca Trail through South America.

This works big Healey was originally handled by David Siegle Morris on the 1962 Alpine and Liège rallies, and subsequently driven to second place on the RAC Rally the same year by Paddy Hopkirk. In 1963 it was used by both Timo Makinen and the Morley brothers, and is believed to be the only authentic unrestored 1962 team car left. Now owned by Lady Pauline Harris, it has been used by her on both the 1999 and 2000 Classic Malts Scottish Reliability Trial and just recently on the French organised Rallye des Princesses.

This car was restored to take part in the 1996 Peking-Paris rally from an old rusty wreck of a car. It is now a replica of the London - Sydney Marathon works team cars of 1968, and believed to be the only “Landcrab” currently competing in historic rallies. As her owner, David Wilks, admits, “She’s not pretty - but she does the job!” This crew is extremely experienced: they took first overall in the 1998 Rally Atlantique, and a silver medal on Peking - Paris among many other accolades. Their most recent outing was in the London - Sydney Marathon earlier this year.

The last car off the London start line was “rescued” by its owners from the almost certain destruction of banger racing in 1998, and completed Club Triumph’s 2000 mile Round Britain Run just weeks later. It was one of the last 2500TCs produced, and has had just one previous owner from new.

Christopher Wray’s car is one of those things car fiends always dream of - a “barn find”! It was discovered in 1984, and a complete rebuild followed. Christopher and Jill have competed in rallies far and wide, including South Africa, the Azores, India, the United States - and of course Europe. Their most recent long distance outing in this Bentley was on the 2000 Mile Trial which took competitors all the way to the Arctic Circle for the midsummer sunrise of millennium year.

This Bentley is a truly sporting car - it has a long history of racing, restoration and renewal. In 1969 it was converted to a Le Mans replica version by specialist Gordon Russell, the President of the Bentley Drivers’ Club. The current owner has continued the car’s sporting tradition - and recently won a bronze medal on the 2000 Mile Trial to the Arctic Circle.

This car was built to order for the High Sheriff of Breckonshire in 1931, as transport for court judges to travel around the county. The price of these cars in those days was £3,500. She is now known affectionately as Martha, and has won two concours d’elegance awards, as well as competing in a number of other long distance rallies with its present owner.

1935 AC 16/60 Open Tourer - Michael Hurdle / Jean Hurdle (Bilbao starter)
Car no. T8

The car was bought new by Michael’s father in 1935 - he used it just before the war to go on his honeymoon to Germany and finally sold it after 22 years’ ownership in 1957. Eventually, it found its way to a Keighley car museum: it was barely driveable and, in Michael’s words, “in a bit of a parlous state” by the time the museum sold it at auction five or six years ago. Michael had always loved riding in the car in his youth, and took the opportunity to bid for it at Sotheby’s, where the catalogue description ran: “Needs a certain amount of attention before seeing its true potential.”

“After having the car restored, it’s finally better than new - or it had better be, because it’s got to get me all the way to Lisbon and back” Michael comments. This event is a “first” for Michael - he’s joined this rally because he loves Spain and Portugal, and reckons that doing London - Lisbon will be a great re-inauguration for this old and much-loved family friend.

The car was originally designed with input from the Earl of March, the grandfather of the present Earl, whose family home is at Goodwood House in Sussex - nowadays a motoring historian’s Mecca as the home of the annual Festival of Speed and Revival meetings. This 16/80 was owned by the Secretary of the AC Owners’ Club in the 1950s, who raced it a lot at club meetings at Silverstone. The car knows Portugal well - its last owner tried to import it there, but failed to pay the necessary taxes. The car was impounded and “handcuffed”. But for the duration of its imprisonment, the resourceful owner attempted a stage-by-stage rebuild, removing components and body parts in turn and subsequently replacing them until the job was done!

This is the “street” version of the 250 SWB, though it was used extensively for racing by a previous owner. It was supplied new in 1962 to Lord Portman: it was collected on his behalf from the Maranello factory together with another which was being purchased by English comedy actor the late Peter Sellers. Both cars were driven all the way to the UK from the factory for delivery to their purchasers.

Sir Terence English - the leading heart specialist - has previously experienced HERO’s London - Cape Town 4x4 Adventure Drive, and will be joining us again for another adventure in October / November 2001 on the Inca Trail. This time, though, he is joining us in a classic car - one that he came across in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, during the London - Cape Town drive, where it had been owned from new by an architect. Sir Terence negotiated to buy the car, having taken a fancy to it, and arranged to have it shipped back to England. It is in original condition.