Historic feat of endurance

The original Series 1 Land Rover (right) was made from 1948-58. There are still many around New Zealand.

New Zealand owners and enthusiasts of the original Series 1 Land Rover drove from Oxford to Cambridge over Labour Weekend to honour an endurance event of 50 years ago.

That's Oxford in the South Island and Cambridge in the North, a trip of around 1000km.

In 1955, six British university students made overland history by driving across two continents from London to Singapore in two Series 1 Land Rovers.

The group set off from London's Hyde Park and 20,000km and several months later, under police escort, drove into Singapore. The students described the journey as one of "too many rivers and two few roads" and one of them, Tim Slessor, wrote a book about it, called First Overland.

"Reading First Overland is what got me into Land Rovers," says John Tancredi, the event organiser and Land Rover Series 1 Club member, "so I wanted to mark the 50th anniversary in a suitable way.

"When I first floated the idea of the commemorative run last year, I never thought it was going to happen. Then fellow enthusiast Philip Avery - of Lucas Transglobal Expedition fame - asked me for an update.

"Well, I wasn't going to tell him that I'd given up on the idea - where would the Land Rover can-do attitude have been? - so it's taken off from there. There have been highlights. One, a surprise phone call from author Tim Slessor.

"He rang me out of the blue to say that the book was being republished in a special anniversary edition."

The Series 1 was made between 1948-58. There are still many tucked away in sheds around New Zealand.

Slessor says the 1955 London-Singapore trip began, "like almost everything else at Cambridge, late at night over gas-ring coffee."

"A tough four-wheel-drive vehicle with low-ratio gears was essential - the Land Rover was the only car suitable. We needed two, and they cost 600 each. We had possibly 200 between us. Perhaps the Rover Company would lend us two Land Rovers? Maybe we could make a film for them?"

Within weeks Land Rover came to the party with two vehicles.

"We called ourselves 'The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition'," says Slessor.

"Our departure was hardly in the nonchalant tradition of most expeditions. We assembled at the Grenadier, a pub just behind Hyde Park Corner.

"The newsreel and photographic tribe arrived at opening time. Friends and relatives arrived to peer anxiously inside the cars ...

"Eventually we went inside the pub for a drink and a scotch egg. Then we went outside, moved the still unpacked kit off the seats, climbed into the cars, shouted our good-byes and drove off".