1939 Record Run - Wolseley 18/85

Wolseley 18/85 in Sahara

By the late 1930’s, the various overland routes from the Mediterranean to Cape Town were no longer the scene of just attempts to get there. The difficulties and dangers were still there, but they had proved surmountable, so speed replaced simple attainment of the goal as the object. This led to dangers of its own, since contempt for obstacles in the interest of haste meant taking risks.

Humphrey Symons sought to show that these drives could be accomplished by the ordinary British passenger car. His first was from London to Timbuktu in 1934, in one of the then-new Morris Tens, during which the 2,835 miles were covered in seven days.

Next, in 1935, he drove a 25 hp Morris from England to Kano in Nigeria. Two years later, accompanied by Bertie Browning, he took a heavy luxury car designed for city use, the Rolls-Royce Phantom III, from England to Nairobi in Kenya. His last adventure was the most exciting and dangerous of all...

On the 22nd December 1938, Humphrey Symons and Bertie Browning set out from London in an attempt to be the first to drive a ‘high-speed’ run to Cape Town. A few teams had driven between the two cities before, but had taken up to 16 months to complete the 10,000 mile journey. Symons and Browning aimed for just 17 days.

They were not the only team to try and establish this new record and competition came from South African’s Jack Gleisner and co-driver Louis Gerard. They set out three weeks ahead of Symons, but the pair ran into trouble in Southern Rhodesia and had to abandon their attempt.
Symons and Browning battled their way across France to Marseille, thick snow lined their route and it seemed that they were the only motorists on the French roads. They boarded the ship which crossed the Mediterranean, bound for Algiers, but stormy weather meant they arrived 3 hours behind schedule.

Algeria was no better and climbing high into the Atlas Mountains, they were forced to turn back and take a wide detour due to severe weather, temperatures of -44°C and snow drifts. It was not a good start to the African continent. By the time they reached Agadez in Niger just 2 ½ days later, the temperature had rocketed up to 38°C.

When they reached Kano in Nigeria, despite all the difficulties they encountered, they had broken the record for crossing the Sahara. They had completed the 2,266 miles from Algiers in just 3 days 4 hours and 45 minutes. For 2,000 miles of their journey, there had been no roads at all.

Driving fast at night through the Belgian Congo, Bertie, who was at the wheel, crashed through the railings of a bridge over the Gada River between Tapili and Niangura, plunging them into the crocodile-infested waters below. The pair managed to escape the sinking car and swim to safety, stagger along a dirt road in the dark for four miles and finally stumble across a Catholic Mission. Their injuries were attended to and the following day 150 convicts from the local prison were conscripted into dragging the car out of the river and up the almost vertical bank.

With the chassis bent and the rear suspension collapsed, the pair headed off again for a further four days until they reached Juba in southern Sudan. Here, a team of Egyptian mechanics from the Sudan Defence Force managed to repair the car so that it could continue its dash to Cape Town. The chassis was straightened and welded, wire mesh used to replace the windscreen and body panels were beaten straight. Not a single spare part had to be fitted!

With the car serviceable, the pair crossed the Highlands of Kenya, battled their way through the ‘black-cotton’ soil of Tanganyika and through flooded rivers near Beaufort West in South Africa.

On Saturday 21st January 1939, the Wolseley pulled up by the statue of Jan van Rijbeck in Cape Town, 31 days 22 hours after leaving London. Incredibly, the pair had driven the 10,300 miles at an average of 320 miles per day including the 12 days that it was stationary due to the crash and repairs. Although not the 17 days that they had hoped for, it was still the fastest time ever to drive from London to Cape Town.

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