Well, they made it... After 14,000 kilometres of driving through 26 countries and touching three continents, participants on the Endurance Rally Association’s London-Cape Town Rally finally roared, limped or otherwise rolled into the Table Bay Hotel in South Africa. It was an emotional moment for all concerned and amazingly, after all that they had endured, just 38 seconds separated the winning team of Steve Blunt and Bob Duck in a non-turbo 2006 Subaru Impreza from Andy Actman and Andy Elcomb’s Toyota Hilux in second. The top historic entrant, Joost Van Cauwenberge and Jacques Castelein’s 1973 Porsche 911, was third.

Dave Tomlin and Nicholas Adcock claimed fourth overall in a 2003 Land Rover Defender TD5, with Owen Turner and Matthew Fowle leading the MGs home in a superb 5th overall and 1st in class (Class B for cars under 1600cc) in their ZR. Class B was, in fact, populated solely by MGs. The Maestro of Jane Edgington and Gillian Cotton – probably the lowest-powered car in the rally and yet rarely out of the top ten – came home in 8th overall/2nd in class, also winning the Coupe des Dames for the top all-girl crew. There were also heroic performances from Paul and Diane Unwin in their ZR finishing 27th overall/3rd in class, closely followed by the Rachel Vestey/Suzy Harvey ZR in 28th/4th in class, not to mention a fine class win for Tim Wheatley and Dominic Manser, who beat the Peugeot 205 home in Class A for cars under 1400cc and finished 30th overall.

Said Owen Turner of the experience: ‘Amazing place, Namibia. When you have driven hour after hour and not seen a soul, you come to realise nobody lives here.’ Matt Fowle described the event as: ‘...the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives. Gut-wrenchingly hard, but truly amazing.’ And in what sums up the spirit of this event, Owen added: ‘Andy Actman stopped in Egypt to tow us out of the sand. Pretty decent of him really, when you consider he would be collecting the winners trophy tonight if he had just driven on past.’

You can read the full story of the ZRs’ exploits in next month’s MG Enthusiast - subscribe here.