The BMC Team drivers were:
Aaltonen / Liddon / Easter
Car 61 Registration No SMO 225G
Finished 5th Overall
Hopkirk / Poole / Nash
Car 51 Registration No. SMO 226G
(This car is now in the Gaydon Museum)
Finished 2nd Overall
Green / Murray / Shepheard
Car 31 Registraton No. SMO 227G
(This car's whereabouts has now been revealed)
Finished 21st Overall
Fall / Wood / Culcheth
Car 4 Registration No.SMO 974G
Finished 23rd Overall
Lead drivers of the 4 BMC Team Cars
Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Fall, Rauno Aaltonen, Evan Green
The Four BMC Team cars being prepared at Abingdon
The BMC 1800 Team
Evan Green (left), 'Gelignite' Jack Murray also standing and George Shepheard behind the wheel - display their "rally goodies."
Photo courtesy Ken Green
This is what they took......
1. Tyres for all conditions - from studded ice rally tyres to high speed radials for highway cruising.
2. Specially contoured driver's seat - designed for maximum comfort.
3. Food container - holding special diet of dried fruit, milk and coffee.
4. Map containers.
5. Jerry cans for spare petrol.
6. Lightweight fuel cans complete with quick fill pourers.
7. Spare multi-purpose hoses.
8. Oil containers.
9. Foam fire extinguisher for all classes of fire.
10. Specially designed foot operated pump.
11. High pressure compressed air bottles.
12. Spare battery.
13. Cooking equipment in case of unexpected rest break.
14. Iridescent warning triangles in case of breakdown.
15. Box containing electrical spares.
16. Spade.
17. Spare suspension units.
18. Block and tackle winch unit in case of bogs etc.
19. Spare hydrolastic units for suspension.
20. Heavy duty lightweight sump guard.
21. Spare muffler unit.
22. Brake and clutch fluid.
23. General purpose containers.
24. First aid kit.
25. Spare SU carburettor.
26. Oils and lubricants.
27. Full range of tools.
28. Hammers, levers.
29. Fully adjustable navigators seat - still form fitting.
30. Safety helmet.
31. Overalls.
32. Magnesium wheel for lightness and strength.
33. Fire-proof racing overalls.
34. Maps.
Enjoying your beer, chips and the company?
Car 31 Evan Green and crew in the Italian Alps
Photo courtesy Alan Sawyer
Mechanics at BMC's Competitions Dept. assembled more than 2,000 parts into each car. These included special rally equipment such as Halda navigational computers, long-range quartz-iodine driving lights, special fuse circuits, larger fuel tanks and even an intercom between navigator and driver.
Peter Browning, Competitions Manager of British Leyland, explained why the 1800 was selected for the Marathon. "There was no doubt the Marathon was going to be the toughest motoring test of all time. So our selection narrowed down to those BMC models which had been used in competition - the Mini Cooper S, the BMC 1800, the Rover and Triumph 2000 and the Rover 3500 V8. In the sports range we had the MGB, MGC, Midget and Spitfire."
"For reasons of space alone, I had to exclude the sports cars. Reluctantly the Mini Cooper S could well be the winner over the Australian leg, but no one was wildly enthusastic over the thought of 8,000 'Mini' miles three-up to Bombay. And so my choice was narrowed to the larger saloons. Of these, the 1800 stood out for the job, because it was the model with more successful rallying miles behind it than the others. The 1800 will not be the fastest car to start in the Marathon, but it will be among the strongest on the starting grid."
"It will also offer the crew space and comfort, particularly over the roughest sections where the hydrolastic suspension will allow the team to maintain high average speeds."
Alan Sawyer
BMC went for three-man crews, Irishman Paddy Hopkirk teamed up with his regular co-driver Tony Nash, and Alec Poole - who had driven in long distance races such as Le Mans, Sebring and the marathon 84-hour-race at Nurburgring.
'The Flying Finn', Rauno Aaltonen also took a regular partner in Henry Liddon, with Paul Easter as third man. Tony Fall, 28, Mike Wood and Brian Culcheth made another crew.
Peter Browning, Competitions Manager of British Leyland, personally selected the BMC Australian team, Evan Green, 'Gelignite' Jack Murray and George Shepheard. 'Gelignite' needed no introduction. Winner of the 1954 Redex Round Australia trial, he was one of Australia's most experienced endurance drivers.
Alan Sawyer
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Rauno Aaltonen, from Turku, Finland, who was racing motor boats at the age of 12, drove the works BMC 1800 car no. 61, to Kabul with the front end held together by wire, following a plunge into a ditch.
He reached Kabul on time, however, and was to finish 5th in Sydney. Aaltonen was a seasoned rally driver. Seven times champion of Finland, he had competed in every form of motor sport from ice racing to formula junior. He was the first driver of a British car (BMC) to become rally champion of Europe. In 1967 he was outright winner of the Monte Carlo Rally.
Rauno Aaltonen, one of the fastest rally drivers in the world, in his BMC 1800, was bugged by the dust on the Australian leg which swirled up behind the cars, reducing visibility, and oozing into the car so that it became like an enclosed coffin. Aaltonen said he got stuck behind the man in front and did not risk overtaking on straight stretches because of the dust.
Alan Sawyer
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'Gelignite' Jack Murray wanted to waterski from the back of the liner S.S. Chusan on a 400 foot rope. The captain agreed but bad weather put an end to the idea. The ship was then doing 20 knots in water three miles deep.
The BMC Team - Evan Green, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk - caused a surprise by heading out of Perth, complete with illegal sirens. They had a plan. The three cars were driven to Guildford, 10 miles out, where they passed the police inspection station to waiting BMC service teams. Mechanics removed the sirens, and the drivers handed them over to the police, saving valuable time which would have taken up with a later check.
All Marathon cars which had received defect notices were passed A OK at Guildford.
A message written in the sand saved 'Gelignite' Jack Murray and Evan Green spending an uncomfortable few hours stranded 50 miles from Mingary on what Jack described as a "stinking hot day." The front end of their BMC 1800 collapsed in the sand hills between Brachina and Mingary. Murray and Green saw a wheel, a brale drum and bits and pieces flying into the scrub. A wheel bearing had seized and torn the wheel off. A BMC service plane spotted a white towel the crew was waving frantically, and dropped them a note saying saying to write what the trouble was in the sand.
Using a wheel brace they wrote: "Offside rear suspension leg complete." The crew in the plane got the message. The flew to Broken Hill and, in a short space of time, parts were on their way to Murray and Green by truck. The repairs took four hours and a 230 points loss was waiting at Mingary. Murray and Green continued on to Sydney without further trouble and finished in 21st position.
Alan Sawyer
Police inspect Paddy Hopkirk's Morris 1800 in Perth Western Australia
Photo courtesy Ken Green
Evan Green at the wheel of car 31
Photo courtesy Ken Green
Paddy Hopkirk at the start of the Marathon
Photo courtesty Alan Sawyer
The Competitions Department, Abingdon
SMO 227G with the mechanic who built the car Robin Vokins on the floor with Cliff Humphries the shop foreman in a white coat supervising the repairs.
It would have been early November 1968 as the car was not registered for the road until 1/ 11/ 68 and the event started on the 24/11/68. Not much time for runing in and testing.
Photo and text courtesy Ken Green
Rauno Aaltonen
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