Vintage Minor Register

Further to my post in Our Cars (NV 2803) relating to a possible trans-USA trip, I got to thinking about other long-distance feats achieved by Minors in the past. Gilg and Kay's Liverpool to Capetown was probably the greatest - and certainly the longest at over 13,000 grueling miles. Then there was Walsh and Cooper's, 8,500 mile run from Nairobi to the UK at the same time, when they famously passed Gilg and Kay in the middle of the Sahara. Then there was Blin and d'Orimont's 1,000 miles plus in 24 hours at Spa. Then there was Olive Willats’ Italy jaunt. Then there's John Dixon who has driven his Minor all over Europe and Asia which he wrote up for the VMR Magazine some time ago. Then there is WE 6554, the 1929 tourer that has been to Norway. There were a couple of fabric saloons that were driven to Scotland and the Riviera as publicity stunts that were written up in the Morris Owner. And of course there was Roy and Heather Hogg's holiday in Yorkshire in their tourer when the lived in north London. Then I suppose we should also mention the Boxing Day Exeter runs back in the sixties. And what else? Trevor Wilkinson has taken his 2-seater to Ireland. I think my longest drive was from Bath to Hastings once, but at that sort of puny distance there must be countless other similar trips of no real significance. Surely someone must have done a Land's End to John O'Groats in a Minor at some point? David Brown drove his 2-seater right around the coast of Britain not long ago for charity. Have I missed any other notable drives?

All of which goes to prove that Minors are far more robust and capable than many owners give them credit for. Perhaps if I do get to drive the McEvoy across the USA, then this might encourage other owners to at least take their cars down the pub occasionally and perhaps even venture to the Cotswolds for a Summer Rally!

I forgot to add Jack Blyth to the list. Jack circumnavigated the south island of New Zealand a few years ago, and is planning a similar circumnavigation of north island.

My longest trip was 210 miles in one day, Blanford Forum to Aberaeron in 7 hrs. Over the whole VMR summer rally we did about 600 miles and all with a duff battery so hand cranking all the time!

This was longer than Bath to Aberaeron that we did the previous year.

Your trip across the States sounds fantastic Ian, definately one for the record books - so how long to get the McEvoy sorted?

cheers
Jeremy

They were also good runs, Jeremy. The more runs like this we can record, the more we might convince one or two that their cars aren't as fragile as might be thought, particularly if you throw in the odd Austin 7 feat - like Anabel's recent Peking to Paris - she stopped briefly in Paris before pressing on for London and a jovial homecoming outside a City pub. I am convinced that the lack of Minors on the road has nothing to do with the cars, and everything to do with many (but not all, thankfully) of the latter day owners. A substantial long-distance award at Prescott might encourage some new faces to turn up - and I have an idea for an award that might prove extremely covetable.

Well, the most appropriate date I can think of is 2013 - William Morris's centenary, and that is also the 80th Birthday of the Mac, but that might be a bit tight for a complete rebuild. But I will press on with planing and see how things develop. I'd use all the modern aids like GPS, cellphones, etc. and probably a tender vehicle which might be useful on the distances of freeway that cannot be avoided - because it can drive behind me, warning traffic of a slow(er) vehicle ahead. And there would be no shortage of back-up en route, but the car would still be an original 1933 Minor and would drive every mile under its own power. One modern problem not really faced by long-distance drivers in the past might be where to park the car securely overnight.

This is my 54th year of motoring in cars and motorcycles. I have travelled from Surrey to north east Aberdeenshire over 50 times. That is 650 miles door to door. In modern tin wear it takes all day i.e. 10 hours. I have done it in two whole days in an Austin 7 (1927), a 1927 Humber 9.20hp, a 1923 and 1927 Alvis, a 1921 Silver Ghost and 1923 20hp Rolls.. In the early days this was with two young children, a wife and large dog. A whole day is 4.30am start and finishing 8pm that night. This is the only way to get the miles in - you mention 5 hours a day - you will never finish the trip. At an average of 30mph that is only 150 miles. I am hoping to take my 9.20hp Humber up next year - Epsom to the Borders first day )330miles) aand finish off the next day to Aberdeenshire. The Humber will only do 45mph flat out but will cruise at 40mph all day.. Long distances to day are hard because we know how long a journey takes in a modern and it is hard to double that time. All the best anyway. Highlander.

Alister,

All great stuff - and surely encouragement for others. Yes, the 5 hour days were very conservative and I came up with the figure when averaging in some days to spend sightseeing en route, as I'll probably have family following me in the tender vehicle and we may as well make the most of passing through places we'll probably never see again. And I wanted to use a worst case number to see if it could be done in the time I might have available for leave from work. My conclusion was that it should be easily doable in 4 weeks off work. When we drove from Michigan to Seattle, in our moderns three years ago, it took 5 days to cover the 2,350 miles - with cats and dogs aboard, and loaded up as much as we dared. So extrapolating to 4,000 miles would take about 9 days. Double that for a Minor and you get 18 days. Call it 20 with contingency for repairs. So that would be 4 weeks driving Monday to Friday with weekends for sightseeing. Seems a reasonable schedule, as I don't think I'd be trying to set any records - just the satisfaction of getting there.

I think the only things that could stop me would be either a bad accident, or a major engine or gearbox failure. I'm even thinking of taking a spare set of rods with me - already scraped in and numbered to the crank, which I could have prepared when the engine gets rebuilt.

Lymington to Suffolk is over 200 miles and although our cars are not fresh like Gilgs having read the book it still fills me with awe that anyone has the stamina to do hundreds of miles day after day in a minor.....

Have done 260 miles in a day [Zeebrugge to Luxembourg], and the same for the return in my M-type. Very hard work, wouldn't recommended it to anyone. Future trips took 2 days - much better.
Have also done 2000 miles round New England in a leisurely 3 weeks, also in the M - I think that's what did for the engine - just about sorted 3 years later!

I was not trying to be a champion long distance vintage motorist!! Motoring to get somewhere on holiday i.e. Aberdeenshire is different from being on holiday and sightseeing. Sometimes we only had a week's holiday so left whenever we could on the Friday night and got as far as we could and then continued up on Saturday. On reaching Crimond on Sunday we would spent five days with relatives and then motor home again on Saturday and Sunday. Would not like to do it now but then we were young!!! Highlander.

We've recently had some masochist in my office CYCLE from coast to coast across the USA! He nearly got eaten alive by mosquitos across the badlands east of the Rockies - couldn't out-run them apparently. If he can do it on a bike, I'm bloody sure I can make it in a Mac. Where did I put the DDT?

Incidentally, I found out that the Gilg car was returned to England by ship after its little jaunt to the Cape and was presented to Morris Motors, after which it was never seen again.

Major, MAJOR victory today. Martin Redmond was on the point of having to give up his trans-USA crossing in his '38 Morris 25 because of seemingly insurmountable red tape centred around insurance and import restrictions. This would be excruciating - after having driven 11,000 miles across some of the most heavily policed countries in the world and having obtained insurance where required.

After much frantic calling and e-mailing, my local insurance company has found a way to break the log jam and the trip can now go ahead. The car is already in the USA and its overhaul has been masterminded by VMR member Ed Morrison down in Long Beach. This is a great combined victory for the worldwide presence of the Register.

As for my mooted trans-USA trip in the McEvoy, and as advice for anyone else considering a long-distance run, Martin offers the following:

"What surprised me most about the journey was the fear I experienced most of the time. We were not accompanied, for long periods (4 days) we were out of touch and the visa situation was such that having left a country, we were unable to return. Perhaps had I been younger or perhaps without 2 tons of scrap metal to lug around I would have been more relaxed. There are a few things to bear in mind. I set a target of a minimum distance of 250 miles per day. Realistically that is 6-8 hours in the saddle - every driving day. We did allow something of the order of 1 day in 4 for downtime for the part of the journey when we left Europe. Foolishly we imagined part of this would be sightseeing. The reality was that when you were bushed having driven for 3 hard days,the 4th day was in some god-foresaken part of the unknown world and guess what? You got back in the car and drove on. For us, the single-mindedness of getting to the final destination took over from every other consideration.

Now I imagine in your case - and god-willing, ours also across the USA, the pressures will be a lot less. But prepare to treat the journey as a task and not a tour. The back-up vehicle will be good and certainly save weight on the car - you can spread the spares load. Will you camp or hotel/motel? We prepared to camp but did so only once in 8 weeks! o I guess you are thinking of 3 weeks-ish for the trip? Your point about security for the car is valid. I was pleasantly surprised driving through LA (Insurance? What insurance?) that nobody seemed to take a blind bit of notice of me, whereas after Europe we were effectively mobbed every time we stopped. We had to hide the car at night and even had it locked in a police compound on one occasion."

Ian
Perhaps my tour through France and into Spain in 1966 in my 1930 Minor saloon with a fellow student is worth a mention - approx 2000 miles to the seaside and back!
Ken

Ken, and the Minor Gang, - Dont mention 1966!!! World Cup Final Day (a Saturday) I set off with the family, wife, two very young daughters (Rosie was a baby) and a collie dog to travel the 130 miles to Swanage in Dorset from Ewell in Surrey. I was driving our 1927, 12/50 Alvis Saloon. I was in convoy with another cou[ple and their two sons in a Ford Prefect. We set off at 5am and had a good run to Guildford (Hogs Back) and then single file queue to Swanage and got there just in time for Kick Off at 3pm!!!! Our worst ever journey, but we were young and knew no different. Today it . takes under 2 hours. I have never driven longer than two days on the trot in a vintage car. 250 miles each day for weeks on end is too much. Off for a single malt. Highlander.

Does 300 miles in one day to visit Prescott and take part in the VMR annual run contiburte as a long distance drive... it certainly felt like it when i got home that night..!!!

Update from Martin Redmond:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ... /tpod.html