Magnum Marathon
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Thumbing through a sex magazine the other evening I saw that its Motoring Correspondent had done some long runs in a standard Vauxhall Magnum estate, driving it from Lisbon to Turkey and non-stop back to London from Istanbul. In spite of the increase in autoroute speed-limits, quick runs about Europe are still possible and of interest to those who test cars or have to make rapid holiday journeys. Motor Sport has had plenty of this kind of motoring, notably when M.J.T. and W.B. visited ten European capitals in four days with a BMW 3.0 CSL and when comparing the relative merits of a light aeroplane and a BMW 3.0 Si between Calais and Cannes. Admittedly it did not occur to either of them to have overalls specially tailored and embroidered for these excursions, to advertise their proposed routes with stickers on the cars, or to have a champagne reception committee waiting for them at their destinations, as happened with this Penthouse Vauxhall.
However, it is worth quoting its 48.8 m.p.h. average, at 26.3 m.p.g., for the 2,778.6 miles between Lisbon and Istanbul and its run from there to Hyde Park between 5.38 a.m. one Monday and 5.15 p.m. the following day, the wet bit being taken in a Hovercraft. The Magnum and the Pirelli CN36 tyres with which it was shod were, Setright says, absolutely without fault and of course, en route he wore down, if he didn’t actually consume, a BMW 2002 and an Alfa Romeo 2000. These average speeds are of some interest since Stanley Sedgwick, President of the Bentley DC, has been logging his times across the more civilised parts of the Continent in Bentley Continental, Lincoln Continental, RollsRoyce Corniche and Daimler Double-Six motor-cars.—W.B.