Land Rover World Article

A FUN SIZE MARATHON

In January, a major attempt will be staged to beat the London-Cape Town driving record, but first, by way of practice, there was a jaunt through Europe.

Late in 2010, the Max Adventure team will be attempting to beat the current record time for driving from London to Cape Town. While success would be reward enough in itself, the main aim is to garner publicity for the charity Help for Heroes. The ultimate target is to raise £100,000. The money goes to help support service personnel injured during the current conflicts. All the team members are either serving, or ex-servicemen, so the charity has a special meaning for them. Further details, and the team’s progress, appear on the web site: www.justgiving.co.uk/maxadventure

The Cape Town journey is 10,000 miles long and the route takes the travellers across three continents and through 20 countries. The current record stands at 13 days, eight hours.

The team

The team for this new record attempt is led by Mac Mackenney, a former RAF pilot and a helicopter technician. As well as holding three records for long distance driving, Mac has a long history of extreme expeditions, including journeys to the Sahara and Everest. He was also the right hand man to Sir Ranulph Fiennes on the explorer’s last trip to the North Pole. He served in the same Army Corps as Eric Jackson, the holder of the existing London to Cape Town record, set in January 1963. Yorkshire resident Jackson is now 85 years old, but still holds the record after 46 years as the fastest man to drive from London to Cape Town, when he made the epic journey in a Ford Cortina GT.

The other members of the Max Adventure team are:

Jim Allen Mechanic ex Royal Logistics Corps
Chris Rawlings Communications ex RAF Pilot
Dr. Andy Grieve Medic serving RAF doctor
Steve Holland UK Operations ex Parachute Regiment
Will Clough Media ex-BBC producer and director
Jack Burnford Medi ex-BBC producer and director

Before the main record attempt, the team thought to test its vehicles and systems with a training run, covering a large mileage, but confining their efforts to Europe. They attempted to re-create, rather than beat, an earlier record. This was set by a team headed by (later Sir) Stirling Moss in response to a challenge issued in 1952 by the head of the Humber car company. The challenge was to visit 15 countries in 5 days, using one of Humber’s new Super Snipes. In the winter conditions that December they achieved the feat by covering more than 3,300 miles in a remarkable 89 hours and 59 minutes. They had travelled at an average speed of 37mph. The route took them over four mountain passes, including the Julier Pass in Switzerland at a daunting 7,400 feet.

Some 57 years later the team led by Mac Mackenney used Land Rovers to warm up with the ‘Moss Marathon’. The Oslo-Lisbon run met with the full approval of Sir Stirling Moss, who also agreed to be patron of the organisation. In the half-century and more that has passed some things may have improved, such as border crossings and road conditions, but others are distinctly worse, such as speed limits and traffic density. As before, the starting point was Oslo, Norway, and the destination Lisbon, Portugal. The idea was to follow the original route as closely as possible. There was a chance they could meet Sir Stirling who would be in Portugal at the time of their arrival if everything went to plan.

In October, Mac and Jim Allen drove the Land Rovers up to Oslo for the start of the journey. Preparations had been the usual rush, with the non-arrival of parts and the journey proving a testing time. An unexpected fuel leak even gave the contingency plans a workout. Apart from that, the long drives (and long ferry journeys) proved uneventful.

Back to the future

Just like their predecessors in 1952, all the team members finally got together at Oslo airport, but this time, the Land Rover dealers, rather than the Humber agents was the place for final preparations and packing. Satisfied that all was well they left Oslo at 1800 CET (Central European Time) on 12 October and headed for the south.

The first day’s travel was smooth, almost to the point of boredom. From Norway, a short ferry crossing took the Land Rovers back into Denmark, which they crossed and carried on into Germany. Traffic conditions were the worst part of the driving. In little time they realised any meaningful schedule was impossible without abandoning their original plan of following the 1952 route and resorting instead to motorways – and even that alternative was bedevilled by numerous traffic delays. The miles were still accumulating as they negotiated Zurich, a city they found less than impressive. Trying to leave Switzerland and tick off another country, Liechtenstein proved elusive, Stirling Moss’s team had not even counted the country on its tally. Eventually, a Liechtenstein border crossing was discovered at a small bridge. All the team members were weary after the hours of constant travel. They quickly returned to Switzerland and made the long, cold climb over the Julier pass. Freezing rain at the bottom of the pass was superseded by snow that lay deep at the 7,300-feet summit. With only the briefest of photoshoots they descended. However, at this point they realised that in returning to Switzerland they had missed the necessary trip through Liechtenstein into Austria to make the tally of countries correct! A quick revision of the intended route raised the possibility of a detour from Italy back to Austria and then into Slovenia. It added 100 miles to the journey, but it was quicker than taking the risk of retracing their wheeltracks, which were already obscured by the snow over the Julier pass.

The oversight considerably increased the pressure on the team as it was left with 2,200 miles of road and just 51 hours in which to cover them. The trip to Italy went smoothly, Austria joined the list of countries visited and the Land Rovers sped on through France and down to Monaco where the yachts and lifestyle impressed the Land Rover crews. They retraced the wheeltracks of the expedition’s patron, quite literally, when they took in a lap of the Grand Prix circuit. The necessary motorway excursions had enabled them to catch up the schedule and allowed the relative luxury of taking A-type roads on towards Portugal. There was time to appreciate the surroundings and even stop for a photoshoot or two.

The finishing post

Everything was straightforward and at 11.07 (CET) they made the Portugese border at Villa Formoso. Total time for the trip was 89 hours 7 minutes. Following the precedent of the Humber-driving trailblazers, they drove to the Land Rover main agents in Lisbon where there was the welcome opportunity to relax, freshen up and enjoy a welcome reception.

On 17th October, they met and received the congratulations of Sir Stirling Moss. He was in Protugal to take part in a sports car race but he was genuinely delighted to hear of the team’s achievement and took a couple of hours out of a very busy schedule to talk to the team and compare details between his challenge and the Max Adventure experience. In turn they were in awe of Sir Stirling’s efforts. The crossings of the mountain passes had been difficult with four-wheel drive, but the Humber was a two-wheel drive vehicle and the trip was undertaken later in the year. The original schedule was hard enough to maintain with motorway driving, yet such roads did not even exist in 1952!

The lessons learned from this experience will stand the travellers in good stead when they set off for Cape Town early in 2010.

Mac Mackenney has still not decided which model Land Rover will be best for their needs. Both Discovery and Defender have merits. The main problem is for the crew member who has to sleep in the back of the vehicle. Comfort and noise were big problems and it was difficult to get proper rest.

There was just one navigator, with VHF radio to relay instructions to the second vehicle. This instant communication was a boon. No matter how they tried, the vehicles were frequently separated in traffic.

Mac’s experience on previous expeditions enabled him to cut right down on what was carried – including many things others might regard as essential. Food was cooked on the engine. At every stop, the meal was rescued from under the bonnet and eaten with a spoon – these were the only utensils carried. Even toothpaste was restricted to the sharing of a single tube! For the Cape Town expedition, the inter-vehicle communication will be essential as only one set of tools will be carried with a minimum of basic spare parts. The tyres will be filled with Airseal, which will keep tyres almost puncture proof even if they are subject to considerable punishment.

Additional lights will be needed for the rougher driving conditions in Africa. These will have to be mounted at the front of the vehicle, as high-mounted auxiliary lights such as those used by the Camel Challenge vehicles have a tendency to reflect back into the vehicle cabin. Fuel could well be a problem. While there was 24-hour availability in Europe, the sparse facilities in Africa mean the vehicles may need to be carrying sufficient for 800 miles. This is not necessarily in auxiliary tanks, which could be prone to damage. Mac is quite happy to carry 20-litre jerry cans in the back of the vehicles.

That’s one mission completed, the main one still to follow. Best wishes for success from all of us at Land Rover World. Mac makes one further request. If everyone who purchases a Land Rover magazine pledges just a single pound towards Help for Heroes, then that £100,000 target will soon be achieved. Come on, you’ve seen the pictures. Will you really notice that pound?

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