1963 Record Run - Ford Cortina

Setting out from Pall Mall, London on the 6th January 1963, their original route was to take them via the Straits of Gibraltar and across Morocco and into Algeria. Upon arriving in Madrid however, a Ford agent told them to turn back to due to the escalating war in Algeria and that they would not be able to get through.

They frantically drove around the Mediterranean coast to Marseille and the ferry to Tunisia, luckily arriving at the port with just 1 hour to spare before the boat departed. A 20 hour crossing followed and during this time the adventurous duo had to re-plan their entire route to Kenya.

Skirting along with North African coast of Libya and Egypt, they finally reached the Nile and could start the long run south. Reaching the town of Aswan, with its large dam, they were told that they were not allowed to continue by road and must board the ferry that would take them to Sudan.

Eric and Ken refused at first, explaining that they were on a record attempt and that the boat would be too slow. A few heated words followed and the pair were finally led away to a small building off to the side.

"There", said the Egyptian official, pointing to four dead bodies. "That's what happened to the last people that tried to drive to Sudan. It's too dangerous."

As much as they wanted to drive down the side of the Aswan Dam, the official was not going to give in and they were ushered onto the boat. That meant yet another delay.

Once they reached Wadi Halfa in Sudan, they sped along gravel roads, before reaching Khartoum. The next leg of their journey was to continue down the length of the Nile, but flooding further south meant that their route was blocked again. Looking at their map of Africa, which was no bigger than an A5 piece of paper, they swung east and the border of Eritrea.

All was going well as they passed through the country and into Ethiopia, where the car was given a full service and 're-build' in just 3 hours.

"If you see a pile of rocks in the middle of the road, watch out, it's an ambush," explained the Ford agent in Adia Ababa. There was no other route, so were forced to take the only road south towards Kenya.

Ken was behind the wheel and they were making good time along the rough tracks made up of sharp rocks. Their tyres had been taking a hammering and were down to their last spare, when there in front of them was a pile of rocks. With Eric's hands on their two Smith and Western .38 revolvers, Ken swung off the road, down a bank and back up again in a 'wall of death fashion'.

"That's when it all kicked off", explained Eric, as he sat relaxed next to his 1960's Cortina GT rally car. "They came at us from both sides, shots were fired and we just knew we had to get out of their."

"Ken and I had decided to run with our windows wound down, should we need to use our pistols. A guy came at Ken from the right so I shot at him, firing across Ken's face who was partially blinded by the gun-flash. Two guys came ouf of the darkness to our left and I let rip with both barrels, while Ken ran over two of them who jumped out in front. Another jumped onto the boot, so Ken stamped on the brakes a few times to shake him off."

After an hour or so, when they felt safe, they pulled over, still shaking uncontrolably. They had no option now but to continue on south, as it would be nearly suicidal to go back. Fearing that they may come across another ambush, they took pictures of themselves as this may be the last time that they were ever seen.

Thankfully, the rest of their journey was considered almost boring by comparison and they arrived in Cape Town at 00:58 on the 20th January 1963, 13 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes after leaving London. They beat the previous record by the narrowest of margins, just 18 minutes.

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