Sydney-London Classic Marathon Rally 2014
Owing its name to the famous rally of the early 70’s, the Sydney-London Classic Marathon doesn’t quite cross as many countries as the original but the originality makes up for it. A mixture of well tried rally heroes like the Datsun 240Z, Ford Escorts and Porsche 911’s were joined by Holdens, Volvos and Ford Mustangs, as well as several modern cars.
Starting at at Sydney covering a total of 16,000 km (just under 10,000 miles) the cars drive across Australia, then airlifted to Turkey and driven to London via the Balkans through Italy. Some cars only did certain sections, but all cars that were registered to race the full distance made it. I caught up with the classic cars on the last night before the race finished in Windsor.
Hans Appelgren and Kjell Appelgren’s Volvo 123GT
John Henderson and Jeffrey West’s Volvo 144
Joost Van Cauwenberge and Jacques Castelein’s Porsche 911
Simon and Sara Connolly’s Porsche 911
Richard Bennett and Matt Wallace’s Ford Mustang
Chris Palmer and Phillip Marshall’s Ford Mustang
Peter Riseborough and Gerry Bashford’s Holden Commodore
Shane Attwell and Mike Joss’ Ford Falcon
Challenger competitor Hans Eric Rhodius and Frederic Van Haaren Ford Escort RS2000
Keith and Mary-Anne Callinan’s MK2 Escort RS 1800
Sandy Dalgarno and Nick Starkey’s Ford Escort RS 1600
Demir Berberoğlu and Yaman Besen’s MK2 Ford Escort
Winners Geoff Olholm and John Doble’s Datsun 260Z
Ondřej Coufal and Jiří Kotek Datsun 240Z
Mark Pickering and David Boddy’s Datsun 260Z
Hilary Evans and Doug Fernie’s Datsun 1600
