The Aussie Ford XT GT Entries
The three Ford XT GT's entered in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon were:

Car   2 Ford Motor Co. Australia Ford Falcon GT - H. Firth, G. Hoinville, G. Chapman
Car 24 Ford Motor Co. Australia Ford Falcon GT - I. Vaughan, R. Forsyth, J. Ellis
Car 29 Ford Motor Co. Australia Ford Falcon GT  - B. Hodgson, D. Rutherford

A fourth Falcon GT from Australia also participated in the Marathon
Car 97 Lunwin Products Pty. Ltd. Australia Ford Falcon GT - R.G. Lunn
Stories and photos from Australian Muscle Car Magazine (AMC) remain the property of Mark Oastler Editor.
Kind permission given by Mark to be presented on this site.

This 1968 London - Sydney Marathon presentation was available in a two part series in issues 10 and 11 of Australian Muscle Car Magazine.

My personal thanks to Mark Oastler and Australian Muscle Car Magazine.
Mark Oastler
The Adventure Begins:

The first car to be flagged off by Desmond Plummer, Chairman of the Greater London Council, with TV commentary by Raymond Baxter, was the Ford Cortina GT of Bill Bengry. The second car was flagged off by reigning Miss World, the gorgeous Australian Penny Plummer, and it was the Harry Firth car that carried No. 2 on the Falcon GT registered as KAG  001. Ian Vaughan was flagged off as the 24th starter in car no. 24, registration KAG 002; Bruce Hodgson was 29th to be flagged away and was in car no. 29, registration KAG 003.
More than 20,000 people crowded into Crystal Palace to cheer the cars off.

Stage one was the 1,165 klm run to Turin via Paris, in 25 hours 52  minutes. The French authorities had banned the cars on the autoroutes, which meant that crews had to navigate the French B-roads (i.e. secondary  roads) at night in thick fog. Rumour has it that some (Australian) crews used the autoroutes but covered up their numbers!

Crews were also promised a motorcycle escort out of Paris, a huge and poorly sign-posted city, but this failed to materialise. The Aussie  Falcon GT's cruised the B-roads at over 160 klm/h with ease.

The next stage, from Turin to Istanbul via Belgrade, was 2,080 klm long and the teams were allowed 36 hours 43 minutes.

With the good roads and the speeds of the leading cars were travelling at, this section proved to be something of a doddle and allowed the crews some rest in Belgrade. As Ford UK team driver Nick Brittan observed in his book Marathon: Around the World in a Cloud of Dust: "We left Italy  without any fanfare at all. Frankly we were surprised by the Italians who are generally speed-crazy car-happy loons but they were unimpressed with the passage of the Marathon cars. The Yugoslavs were much more enthusiastic."
In the mountainous Ljubljana area, the teams experienced cold, rain and sleet for the first time. But, as Ian Vaughan said, "It wasn't wet enough to slow us down much, if at all."

The cars were serviced in Belgrade at the local Ford dealer while the crews tried to rest in the Hotel Metropole. At the border crossing with Bulgaria, the crews were feted,  Hoinville: "We were given a road and weather report (in English) as well as a leather-bound diary for each of us and some fresh apples and pears.

And the border authorities could not have been more pleasant, it was  really nice and quite different for the reception we'd got coming into  France and Italy." Vaughan added: "Yes, and everywhere we went across Bulgaria the roads were lined with people waving to us and standing in drizzling rain."
Nick and Jenny Brittan came to grief in the hazardous conditions
The inclement weather followed the cars through into Turkey where the rain increased in intensity and the winds were near gale force. But the big Falcons motored on unflustered by the work of nature.

Into Turkey for the next stage meant a mere 875 klms in 12 hours and 25 minutes from Istanbul to Sivas in central Turkey.

The teams crossed over the Bosphorus by ferry. Hoinville: "If you bought  your ticket from the man at the gate, it cost the equivalent of 6/- but if you bought it on the ferry, it cost 10/-. Many got caught by that  little scam."

Vaughan: "Driving across Turkey was a nightmare. The roads were narrow and crowded with trucks, goats, cows and horses. You'd come blatting around a bend and there'd be a bloody horse and cart in the middle of the road. And the truck drivers were maniacs!"

The next stage was a short one from Sivas to Erzincan, just 280 klms away in the north of Turkey. Only two hours 45 minutes was scheduled.
Of the Marathon so far, this was the most challenging. The section, driven at night, sorted many crews out. Not only was the road narrow, it  was mostly loose dirt and gravel and following a downpour, mud. Vaughan and Hoinville both agreed that this section was "the hariest" and was not helped by the fact that the rain turned to sleet and finally snow.

Vaughan: "Up in the mountains, and we were at times up around 7,000 feet  (2,140 metres) above sea level, we were driving along nothing more than a  track. Many teams 'came unstuck' and skidded off the road into muddy  banks or off the narrow bridges. One or two even went over the edge and there was black ice everywhere because it was freezing cold outside."

The three Ford Australia crews came through unscathed but did lose some points. Amazingly, Ford UK hot dog rally driver Roger Clark, teamed with Swede Ove Andersson, lost a mere six minutes through this section!
MIDDLE EAST

Powering through the night on the next stage to Teheran, 1,385 klms away and a time allowance of 22 hours and one minute - a very precise time!

The road wound its way up into the Elburz Mountains where there were snowstorms and it was so cold the sleet froze on the cars' windscreens.  At the Turkish-Iran border the authorities were very quick to stamp the visas and get the teams on their way. The road in Iran was wide and sealed so the teams could cruise easily at 140 + klm/h.

However, outside Tabriz it changed abruptly to a dirt road that, in the wet conditions, was quite dangerous. The last section into Teheran was on a road as good as the motorways in England.

Hoinville: "Out of Teheran we were escorted by the local police chief.  Once we'd cleared the suburbs, he sped up to 100 mph (160 klm/h) and was  having a ball. But Harry got bored with that and pulled out and passed him and sped off at 125 mph (200 klm/h)! We heard later that the police chief was pissed off about it all!

The road stretched off into the distance towards Kabul, some 2,368 klms away (time allowance 23 hours 33 minutes) and was a good two-lane piece of blacktop. From Kandahar to Kabul the road was dead straight for kilometres at a time.

Vaughan: "We asked the locals why there was such a good road and they said, 'It was built by the Americans and Russians because they knew they were going to have a war here!'"

It was on this stretch of road that Harry Firth's car had an 'incident'.  Hoinville relates the story: "We had been cruising along at 120 mph (190 klm/h) or so, when a rear tyre burst on us. Harry quickly brought the car to a halt and Gary and I started to change it. It was night, it was pitch black and there was not a soul around. Then out of nowhere appeared about six people who came up to us talking in Afghani - we had to keep our eyes on our equipment because they'd steal it in a flash. Anyway, we got the wheel changed and blasted off into the night. It was an eerie experience!"

Kabul was a compulsory rest stop for all crews. It was here that the Australians saw a different form of crowd control first-hand. Ian Vaughan: "The mounted police were brutal in their treatment of onlookers. They knocked people over with their horses to keep them away  from the crews!" And as the team members said about the accommodation in the hotel: "The rooms were awful. In one corner was the shower-cum-toilet with cockroaches everywhere, the ceilings were 20 feet (six metres) high  and the shower rose was way up there. It was like standing under a bloody waterfall!"

The fuel available in Afghanistan was around 66-octane, which was unsuitable for the cars, John Pryce from BP flew to Kabul and talked his way into the Air Force base there and acquired several drums of  100-octane fuel, hired two trucks and set up a refuelling depot ready for the cars. The only way the fuel could be transferred into the cars was the use of watering cans!
CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER

Crossing the Khyber Pass at night was forbidden and so the organisers arranged the rest stop in Kabul so that the leading cars would be at the Pass as dawn broke. Harry Firth's team was first on the road into Kabul although Roger Clark was well ahead on points.

Hoinville: "Harry was absolutely determined that we'd be the first over the Pass because he wanted to avoid the dust problem. However, we were beaten to it by one of the Brits in a Cortina - Bill Bengry I think it was. Anyway, we got through OK and passed the Cortina not long afterwards."

It was in the Pass that the Hodgson/Rutherford GT severed a brake line -  they arrived at the Sarobi border control with virtually no brakes. The service people were aware of the problem and quickly fixed it so they continued on with minimal loss of time (and points).

The Khyber Pass had a dreadful reputation gained over many decades. What  the crews found, though, was that the road was no longer all dirt, had been bitumen-sealed and was in fairly good condition.

International relations are a delicate thing as Graham Hoinville and Gary Chapman related: "At the Pakistan-Indian border it was most amusing as well as being bloody ridiculous. As you know there is a lot of tension between the two countries - anything the Pakistanis did, the Indians had to go one better. We were the first car at the checkpoint and after a very cordial welcome from the Pakistani border guards, we crossed to the Indian control point where a gorgeous Indian girl came up to us carrying a silver tray with a cup of tea each. With all good grace we declined and roared off spinning our wheels!"
On the road to Delhi there were hordes of people everywhere - they were all over the roads to the point that it was difficult for the crews to see where they were driving at times. In Delhi the crews again witnessed what we'd call today police brutality. They would beat the spectators with huge batons to get them out of the way of the Marathon cars - people were collapsing injured into the roadside ditches and being left there.

South to Bombay, (today Mumbai) - 1,372 klms in 22 hours 51 minutes - where the teams had to dodge ox carts, sacred cows and trucks and again they were greeted enthusiastically by what seemed like the entire population of the city. The Falcon GT's were scheduled for a service which was done in the workshops of the India Tyre and Service Company  through an arrangement with Dunlop.

Hoinville continues: "They have this caste system (social class system based on inheritance) in India as you will remember. Anyway this pompous  Indian wearing white gloves was carrying on a conversation with Harry when he, being a man of few words, turned to him and said 'Listen cock,  you gonna fit the f***ing tyres or what?' The Indian reeled back and the next moment there was a herd of people swarming around the car fitting  new tyres!"

The three Australian Falcon GT's arrived ahead of schedule and had nearly four days of R&R while they waited for the tail-end Charlies to get to Bombay.
'Gelignite' Jack Murray with a few turbaned friends.
Apart from being serviced, the three GT's all received new brake pads and rear drum linings, a new set of dampers and little else.

John Gowland: "People didn't believe us when we said that that was all we needed to do. Other teams, including our British friends, had to carry out major work on their remaining cars because they were driving them so hard and they were much lighter than our rugged Falcons. We never needed to carry out major work and all due credit must go to Harry and Ken Harper for the meticulous way in which they prepared all three cars."

"The only concern we had was for the rear wheel bearings on Ian's car, so  we decided to change them just to be on the safe side. Ironically,  Harry's car suffered a bearing failure in Australia."

And Ian Vaughan commented with a wry smile on his face: "They (the  British and German Ford teams) really had to drive as hard as they did so they had plenty of time in the stops to rebuild their cars ready for the next stage!"

Roger Clark and Ove Andersson (Lotus-Cortina) were presented with the Carrera Guards Trophy and a cheque for £2,000 for being the leader of the Marathon at Bombay.

Second at that stage was Simo Lampinen and Gilbert Staepalaere in a Ford Taunus 20M RS, Lucien Bianchi and Jean Claude Ogier were third in their Citroen DS 21.

The best placed Australians were those in KAG 001 (Harry Firth, Graham Hoinville and Gary Chapman) who were 7th, Bruce Hodgson and Doug Rutherford in KAG 003 in 10th and Ian Vaughan, Jack Ellis and Bob Forsyth in KAG 002 in 11th place.

After being serviced the cars were impounded in the parc ferme where they were steam cleaned before being loaded (by slings) onto the SS Chusan for Perth. The organisers had estimated that just 50 cars would get to Bombay - eventually 72 cars arrived to be loaded onto a ship that could  take 70 cars at a pinch. Room was found for the two extra cars...

The time in Bombay ended up being party time - "Absolutely not true!" said Ian Vaughan, tongue in cheek.
AUSTRALIA BOUND

It took the SS Chusan nine days to sail to Perth where the cars were unloaded. KAG 001, Harry Firth's car had been dropped off the sling during loading in Bombay, fortunately without doing any damage, and was dented by the slings in Perth. "Harry was not a happy Vegemite,"  according to Gary Chapman.

Western Australian Premier, David Brandt, flagged the cars away from Gloucester Park (paceway) at four o'clock in the afternoon on Saturday December 14, Clark being the first away followed by Harry Firth. With the media build up to the event in the preceding weeks the crowd was huge. Because of dusty conditions ahead, the organisers increased the time  between cars from one minute to three - a wise move as it happened.

There had been rumors of police action aimed at the Marathon. Upon unloading, each car was impounded and given a roadworthy check - 27 cars  failed it! And it eventuated at Guildford, 16 kilometres out of Perth where they had set up another roadblock to check and see if the teams had done their job. The rumblings from the international crews began to  gather momentum.
FABULOUS AUSSIE FALCONS

The effort by Ford was enormous. There were three German Taunus cars, three factory Falcon GT's plus a non-factory car, and ten cars from Ford UK - a total of 16 factory-backed Fords of the 98 cars that started. The fact that five out of the top ten cars were Fords was probably small consolation for the UK and German Ford works teams, because the limelight was grabbed by the Aussies who had a perfect finishing score - three out of three - and had garnered the Teams Prize against all the odds. Ladbrokes, the London bookmakers, had the Vaughan Falcon at 100/1 before the start!

Amazingly, today (2004) two of the original three Marathon GT's still survive. KAG-002, Vaughan's car, is on display at the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong (Victoria). KAG-003, Bruce Hodgson's car, is in private ownership while sadly, Harry Firth's car KAG-001 has been lost to us.

All the members of the Ford Australia teams agreed that the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon was the highlight of their careers.

Ian Vaughan had the last say on this: "Even though most of us have been involved in motor sport in some way for years, both before and after the Marathon, this event was the first of its kind and that made it extra special for us all."
THE FINAL PUSH

It was in the next stage, from Mingary (just west of the SA/NSW border) south to Brookside in the Victorian Alps - 1,002 klms in 12 hours 56 minutes - that more problems with the police emerged. There had been statements from officers of the law regarding their attitude (very well known and publicised) to the Marathon from the moment the cars arrived in Australia. Simo Lampinen was booked for speeding and several other drivers cautioned. Even though nothing came of it, the publicity it gathered did little good for the police. It was in this section that Harry Firth had an "off" and lost 10 minutes.

Brookside to Omeo to Murrindal was a relatively short section, just 309 klms and one minute over four hours in which to do it. The problem was that it was through mountainous country and was driven at night. Vaughan was the best-placed Australian driver now, while Clark's Lotus-Cortina's differential disintegrated in this section. He lost minimal time repairing it after he convinced a local Cortina driver (who'd sat out to cheer the cars as they sped by) to give him the differential out of his car!

The cars turned north to Ingebyra, Numeralla, Hindmarsh Station and Nowra in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales before descending down onto the plains and to Warwick Farm Racecourse in Sydney and the finishing line. The Aussie's strategy was starting to show itself. The plan was to stay cool from London to Bombay, keeping the cars in good nick for the rough stuff in Oz, then use the strength of the Falcons across Australia to out-last the less robust European machinery as all drivers pulled out the stops with Sydney in sight. Vaughan moved up from 11th at Perth to 3rd outright - Hodgson from 10th to 6th.

Near Cooma the police really did a number on the Marathon crews and came in for many derisory comments in the press when they announced they were going to make an example of the "speed-crazed rally (sic) drivers." Paddy Hopkirk in his Austin 1800 was the quickest through the Southern Highlands section, losing just one minute, but Vaughan and Firth were there with him losing four minutes and five minutes respectively. Sadly for Firth, his Falcon GT's diff expired (wheel bearing failure) out of Hindmarsh Station but a signal to the service plane had the service crew and a new diff on the ground almost immediately - he lost only 52 minutes making the repairs!

Despite the heavy police presence everywhere, a driver of a spectator Mini evaded a road block out of Nowra, about 160 klms from the finish and crashed head-on into the leading car, Lucien Bianchi in the Citroen DS21, putting him out of the event virtually within sight of the finish line.

Paddy Hopkirk in his Austin 1800 was the first driver to Warwick Farm but he waited for the winning car, the Hillman Hunter GT of Andrew Cowan, to cross the line and he followed him over with Australian Ian Vaughan next in his Falcon GT.

Cowan was accorded a hero's welcome by more than 10,000 people who'd thronged to the racecourse to see the cars and crews.

He acknowledged in his victory speech that Bianchi was the moral victor and that he felt sorry for him. Nevertheless, Cowan had displayed huge consistency during the entire event and as the old adage goes - "to finish first you must finish."
Unloading at Fremantle, Western Australia
One of the Falcons performing at the Bathurst 500 in 1968
Home I A Tale Of Two Cities I How It All Began I The Entrants I The Rules I Timetable I The Route I Their Story I Photo Albums
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ladies I How They Finished I BMC I Ford I Holden I Other Marques I Site Map I Memorabilia I Credits/About Us I Links
Home I A Tale Of Two Cities I How It All Began I The Entrants I The Rules I Timetable I The Route I Their Story I Photo Albums
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ladies I How They Finished I BMC I Ford I Holden I Other Marques I Site Map I Memorabilia I Credits/About Us I Links