Fast Marina Magazine

Full report in this month's PC of their participation in the LeJog reliability trial from Lands End to John O'Groats

The PC Marina finished 24th out of 41 finishers which is a good result for a novice (and not well prepared by their own admission) team but the Marina got them there with some minor float chamber issues being the only breakdowns. Their Volvo Amazon support car had a more serious problem with a broken trailing arm support on the axle. Fair play to them for seeing it through which was a tough challenge for a novice crew. If they had done a few warm up events, they might have done a lot better than 24th but hey-ho, still a good achievement.

I've not followed the preparation of the car but I guess it was a pretty much standard machine due to the regularity / reliability nature of the event which makes it a good feather in the cap of the Marina to be honest.

I was in contact with Sam Glover in the months up to the LEJOG, supplying advice and car data. The car was largely standard other than a sump guard and wheels/tyres.

The whole project was based in a budget of £2K including the car. Andy W & Dave R helped with parts etc. The Editor of PC was going to enter them in the LEJOG tour and only told them that they were in the rally 6 weeks before the event.







Chris
www.marinacoupe.co.uk

After reading that I thought, I wonder what the entry fee for that is? £2,761 is the answer :shock:
Awesome experience and over 1600 miles of competitive driving but that is a large entry fee.

Yes it is quite a large fee but I have done this rally a few times and it is very good value. Included in that price is your 2 over night hotels and meals plus lunch and coffee stops on route. Then when you consider all the work that goes into organising and planning the event and hiring of the different sites to do the stages, booking of pubs etc I guess the £2000 doesn't go very far. I would recomened this to anyone its an experince of a life time and the cammeradie between crews is fantastic.
The thing that puts me off now is the price of the fuel, by the time I drive to Lands End for the start and then back home to Durham after the event I covered just over 3400 miles last time.
No I don't work for hero and the car I use is my dolomite sprint, the overdrive is great so the marina stays at home, not that I would have any fears about using it for this event.

I imagine you're absoloutely spot on, nearly £3k unfortunately doesn't go very far these days.
Compared to stage rallying, it's still cheap / mile and there's a lot more miles in there.
Epic journey in normal conditions but timed and with extra tests, a proper challenge.
I have utmost respect for anyone who gets out there and does it so fair play to you (bit jealous really ).

if any one whants to have a taste of this kind of rally why not do a single day one the cost of them is around £130 ish
and you get home to your own bed
look at the H.R.C.R. web site

The Practical Classics videos are now on YouTube
Part one
Part two
Part three