It's 4.00am and I'm standing on a lonely gravel road near Mt Arden outside of Quorn, 300 kilometres North of Adelaide in the Flinders Ranges. It's December 15, 1968, the eve of my 13th Birthday and my dad has driven us here in our Mk II Cortina to see the world's best race and rally drivers at speed on what is one of the final days of the London to Sydney Marathon, the biggest event of its kind the world has ever seen.
The crews have come from all over the world, rally drivers like Roger Clark, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk, Le Mans Winner Lucien Bianchi, as well as Australia's best and the 1200-strong population of Quorn has more than doubled for the event.
I hadn't grasped at the time the madness I was watching. 5660 kilometres in three days. Do you want me to say that again? Frankly, it's incomprehensible, even by today's standards of hi-tech machinery. Neither did I realize that I was watching a pivotal event, an event that would affect the lives of so many motorsport enthusiasts.
A few years later at Flinders Uni, I met some blokes who had also been to Quorn to watch the event. We became friends and within a year we were crewing on another student's rally car. Before long two of us were contesting the local championship. We were an example of how much the experience had affected those who witnessed it. One of those blokes - Ed Ordynski - went on to become Australian Rally Champion. It was therefore no surprise when I travelled to Quorn again this year for the Perth to Sydney Marathon to find so many others who had been directly impacted by that 1968 experience.
Denne historien er fra Issue 477-utgaven av Unique Cars.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 477-utgaven av Unique Cars.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
CHEVROLET C2 CORVETTE 1963-67
TWO YEARS after Jaguar made every other sports car obsolete with its E-Type, Chevrolet went a step further with its radical Corvette Sting Ray.
LOST & FOUND
THE WHEREABOUTS OF THIS RARE 1969 AMC AMX WAS FOR DECADES A COMPLETE MYSTERY, UNTIL IT WAS PULLED IT OUT OF A SHED IN ADELAIDE
IN THE RED!
AS OUR ROADS EMULATE THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, GOVERNMENTS ARE DOING THEIR BIT TO SHIRK ALL RESPONSIBILITY
Ray Ikin - 2001 MUSTANG & 2003 CV8
RAY IS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE A BIG DECISION WHEN HE STROLLS INTO HIS SHED DO I TAKE THE MUSTANG OR THE MONARO?
1986 PORSCHE 928 S
THE 928 SHAPE MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN ACQUIRED TASTE FOR PORSCHE AFICIONADOS, BUT IT’S DESIRABILITY HAS IMPROVED WITH AGE
MODERN CLASSICS ZX-12R
KAWASAKI'S KING NINJA AIMED TO BE A HAYABUSA-BEATER
FLY DMC
THE CULT OF DELOREAN - THE MAN. THE MACHINE. THE MOVIE(S)
1972 FORD FALCON HARDTOP GT REPLICA
THIS FACTORY V8 FALCON HARDTOP KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT BRIGHT AND DESIRABLE COLOUR COMBINATIONS
VALE MECUM AUCTION'S JOHN KRAMAN
A CORNERSTONE of Mecum Auctions and one of its most recognisable members, John Kraman, has died.
STOP IT!
PERHAPS THE CELEBRATION OF DIVERSITY IN GENERAL SHOULD INCLUDE CELEBRATING THE DIVERSITY OF HANDBRAKE TYPES
