Guild to recreate history in 70-year-old Austin

Members of the Guild of Motoring Writers are among a team planning to commemorate an audacious road trip challenge by the Austin Motor Company in March 1947 by carrying out the same trip, hour-for-hour, 70 years on.

The Longbridge company originally tasked the crews of three Austin Sixteen cars with covering 2,500 miles in seven days, visiting seven European capital cities and arriving in Geneva in time for the first post-war motor show. Among the participants was motoring journalist Sammy Davis, a founding member of the Guild of Motoring Writers.

The 70th anniversary recreation will see an Austin Sixteen, specially prepared to be as close in specification to the original cars, conduct the same trip. This time, participants will include Guild deputy chairman Guy Loveridge, alongside Guild members Steve Berry and Philip Newsome.

With support from Mintex, the event has been named “The Mintex Austin Sixteen Goodwill Tour Platinum Anniversary 1947-2017”. Business development director at Mintex, Lawrence Bleasdale, said: “We are delighted to support this event as it illustrates that we can supply the same cars now as we did then!”

Jaguar will provide an F-Pace support vehicle, while other event supporters include Total lubricants and DFDS Seaways. The original event crossed from Newcastle to Stavanger before continuing overland to the start in Oslo. That route is today unavailable. Therefore, the team will instead cross to Holland and then drive to Copenhagen, before taking the ferry up to the start point. Luckily, the mileage will be virtually identical.

A Facebook Page for the event has been created and fellow Guild member, Danny Hopkins. He added: “This is really exciting and shows just how ‘practical’ even a 70-year-old classic can be. I am really looking forward to following the progress of this one!”