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Morris Minor Owners Club 2005 John O'Groats to Land End Endurance Run

by John Cooper

Day 1 - Sunday 19^th June 2005

For those who missed the recent preview, this year my dad and I decided to enter our 1958 Morris Minor into the annual John O’Groats to Lands End endurance run organised by the Barnsley Branch of the Morris Minor Owners Club. The challenge is to get from John O’Groats to Land End in 24 hours. Other than that there are few rules, but one important one is that no laws must be broken.

The day for us to start our journey to the start line at John O’Groats seemed to arrive very quickly and we were ready for the off. The buntings were out, the crowds cheered and the press clicked away as the bands played us off.

Ok, it wasn’t quite like that. We took a couple of pictures for our own albums and for our chosen charity (Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, www.bluebellwood.org) just in case they were interested. Family and a couple of neighbours waved as Dad and I set off and a couple more curtains twitched. (The event isn’t actually for charity but we, and as it turned out a couple of other entrants, used it as an opportunity to raise some money for a worthy cause.)

The organisers of the event thoughtfully supplied a blank log which entrants could use for recording times, locations, mileages etc., so our plan was to try to keep an accurate record of things as we went along. To do this we obviously needed to know how much petrol we had in the tank from the beginning, so first stop was at the petrol station just around the corner.

This is not quite the telemetry you may have come to expect from watching Formula 1 but I hoped it would provide some distractions during the long hours on the road and some interesting talking points at the end. It would be made more interesting by the fact that we knew our speedo to be out but not by how much exactly. As a rough guide we thought it was over-reading by about 10%.

One other point of note is that we don’t really have any idea of what the true mileage of the car is. As the speedo is out, there’s a chance that it’s not original. Even if it is the original, then we don’t know how many times it’s been round the clock or how long it’s been over-reading.

The first solo leg would take us from Doncaster up the A1 to Ferrybridge services (where the A1 meets the M62). Here we would be meeting up with other members of the Barnsley branch of the MMOC before proceeding up to Pitlochry where we would spend the first night. The car was running well and we soon arrived.

It was here that we learned of the first casualties. One team had been meaning to set off from Essex to meet us at Ferrybridge. After getting through 3 coils they concluded that no way was the car going to make it and their second car was in pieces. Not wanting to miss out however, they got word to the organisers that they would still be joining us later, just in their modern Volvo.

So our reduced convoy of 4 Minors set off up the A1 on the next stage to Scotch Corner where we were promised the best bacon sandwiches money could buy. (I left any expectations of having a healthy diet on the road back in Doncaster.)

I never actually got to the bottom of exactly what events were taking place on this particular day (which happened to be fathers day), but there seemed to be a large number of classic cars on the road. Something else that occurred to me was that 4 Morris Minors in convoy all sporting rally plaques seem to attract a lot more attention than you normally receive. I was amazed just how many people beeped and waved.

Again the car seemed to be running very well and as we were following someone else in a later 1098, kept up a good speed. This particular stage provided me with probably the most memorable moment of the whole event when we overtook a Ford Mustang and another classic American car.

My one disappointment about this incident was that throughout the trip I was using a borrowed camera which I hadn’t got the hang of by this point and so wasn’t able to react quickly enough and capture the moment when we took the Mustang. I’m sure there’ll be many more!

Scotch Corner duly arrived and the bacon was indeed good. This was when I first realised the harsh realities of taking a convertible on such a trip. It’s a sad sign of the times but we weren’t happy leaving the car unattended with the hood down. The boot was largely full of spares and tools so the back seats were taken up with our personal belongings. From this point on, all pit stops and toilet trips would have to be planned so that someone stayed with the car.

Scotch Corner
Mmmm - bacon!

After Scotch Corner it was on to Gretna Green. One thing I haven’t mentioned that I was really looking forward to about the trip was that it would take in lots of places I’d never visited before. One such place was Gretna Green where we planned to stop for lunch.

Gretna Green turned out to be very much geared up for tourists with a large coach park. The courtyard by the old blacksmiths around which it’s all centred has themed shops such as whisky and tartan, and of course shops where you could buy souvenir miniature bag pipes. There was naturally a piper who you could be photographed with, and I must admit that he did look fantastic in full dress.

After this it was on to Perth, “Where the World’s finest paperweights are made” for the next comfort break.

Perth
Mmmm - paperweights!

The final leg of the day took us to Pitlochry. Booking late we weren’t able to get into the same place as the rest of the party, but we had no regrets as we were staying in a fantastic old B&B overlooking the river. The welcome couldn’t have been friendlier and the accommodation was beautiful.

Everyone met up for dinner and this is when we first met the Essex contingent we’d set off without earlier in the day. After a good meal and a couple of drinks it was back for a reasonably early night ready for the next day.

Day 1 statistics

From To Distance Time Average speed (MPH) Average consumption (MPG) Doncaster Ferrybridge 22 0:30 44.0 46.7 Ferrybridge Scotch Corner 65 1:10 55.7 46.7 Scotch Corner Gretna Green 88 1:45 50.3 46.7 Gretna Green Perth 149 3:00 49.7 45.0 Perth Pitlochry 30 0:40 45.0 45.0
	Average speed between stops
	Average fuel consumption between refuelling stops

Note: figures not adjusted for speedo inaccuracies.

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