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FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 46The latest news of the 'First Overland' DVD, based on Antony Barrington Brown's original film footage of the 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition from London to Singapore, and the subsequent 'After Overland' adventures of the two cars. |
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Well, SNX891 'Oxford' has made it... across the USA 'From Sea to Shining Sea', reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Hatteras, the easternmost point of the North Carolina coast, on the weekend of November 15th/16th. The journey had started in September last year from the Pacific coast in Oregon.
The journey didn't go quite as originally planned — the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic put paid to many of the rallies where Land-Rover enthusiasts had been hoping to meet one of the most iconic vehicles ever to come out of Lode Lane. It's also worth reminding you that 'Oxford' is also the Historic Motoring Awards CAR OF THE YEAR 2020 — details in Newsletter 45. But the Trans-America journey was still a success, producing some very dramatic pictures from a landscape quite unlike anything that the car saw between London and Singapore 65 years ago. I included some of them in that last Newsletter but there are more on the 'Oxford in America' Facebook page, and some marvellous comments from those who welcomed their hero to their shores.
Greg Fitzgerald summed it all up in a great online article here — well worth a read.
But the journey wasn't without mechanical incident... Adam explained that it had had some trouble on the way back from Singapore, and 'Oxford' was taken to a workshop in a small village somewhere on route, where it was repaired in the most primitive conditions, out in the open air with a tarpaulin over to keep the tropical rain off. The speed in which the mechanic worked was remarkable, as he stripped and rebuilt the engine, and got it running again. We may see this when the 'Last Overland' film series is aired on UK TV shortly — transmission details hopefully in a future Newsletter.
Adam said:
It had taken a real battering coming back from Singapore. Unfortunately, once it was back in the UK, I'd hoped to get it properly overhauled with the help of the Land Rover Heritage workshop, but there wasn't time before the boat across the Atlantic was scheduled. In America there were more engine problems, and a damaged piston was found. There were also problems with the clutch that had to be fixed, but they did it, and got her back running well again.
The full list of work has been compiled by David Short, the President of the Rover Owners Association of Virginia — you can see it here.
So what is next for our favourite Series 1? Well, not an immediate return to the UK. When I interviewed Adam shortly after he got 'Oxford' back on the road, he said it was his ambition to let enthusiasts around the world share in his ownership of the iconic car. He was dreaming of sending SNX891 to every continent, including Antarctica. Now I've known Adam long enough to realise that he's not one to take "No" for an answer, and if he wants 'Oxford' to go to every continent, then 'Oxford' will go to every continent!
So, as we've seen, Asia and Europe have been covered with the 'Last Overland' journey back from Singapore, and now the North American continent has been ticked off the list. And although the car is now back on the east coast of the USA, it's going to continue around the world, to New Zealand next (and then, maybe, Australia?) But Adam was impressed with the measures that New Zealand had taken to keep themselves relatively free from Covid-19 so that something approaching 'normal' life (with rallies and so on) can still go on. There's something about the New Zealand terrain and temperament that fosters great enthusiasm there for Series 1s, and Adam was very keen for SNX891 to go.
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The car could have been put in storage until the pandemic was over, but instead of that it'll be going somewhere where it'll do some good, and they can have a jolly good time with it. In 2005 (for the 50th anniversary of 'First Overland') they organised a commemorative drive from Oxford near Christchurch in the South Island to Cambridge in the North, so it would be nice if they could do Cambridge to Oxford and hopefully on to Wanaka for the 'Wheels on Wanaka' Show, time permitting. This inspired me to contact them, and say "Would you like to do it again with the proper car?" |
And, of course, they would!
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As the poster shows, Wheels at Wanaka is a big event over the Easter weekend April 2nd-4th next year, on New Zealand's South Island. All being well, 'Oxford' is to be a star feature, and Land Rover owners from all over New Zealand, especially those with older Series vehicles, are also invited to attend to display their Land Rovers as a group with 'Oxford'. It will also be the venue for the NZ National Land Rover Owners Rally, starting on the previous Tuesday (March 30th). |
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And onward to Australia? Adam says there's no definite plans as yet, but with SNX891 already close by in the southern hemisphere, who knows what might happen? And yes, Antarctica is still on his wish-list, impractical though that may be. He's just sent me a copy of the pre-shipping condition report for West Coast Shipping in the USA, which noted that 'Oxford' "had a few scratches on it." After the miles it's done, and the years spent in a bramble bush on St.Helena, I'm not suprised! |
At this point I was planning to tell you about a forthcoming appearance of 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' in the last of a series on the Quest channel (Freeview 12 in the UK, and online). Back in June I was approached by a TV production company, saying that they were preparing a programme on Land-Rovers, and would like to explore using some of the footage from one of my productions — both my shots and BB's original footage. I was naturally happy to go along with this, and gave them temporary free access to my online streams so they could choose what bits they wanted.
Yesterday I had a mad panic phone call — they had to finish editing the last of the series by last night, but hadn't got a good quality version of the images. Naturally I pulled out all the stops to find what they wanted, and upload it to them. I was somewhat disappointed to find that they only wanted 6 seconds of BB's footage, of the two cars heading up a dusty track in Syria — clearly this wasn't going to be a lengthy sequence on 'Oxford's exploits, both before and after rescue from St.Helena, but it was bettter than nothing. Fortunately it was only 6 seconds, because my rural broadband upload speed meant that it took nearly half an hour to transfer, during which time I was unable to join a Zoom presentation that I wanted to see.
We then entered into a long and convoluted email and phone discussion on who exactly could give permission for them to use BB's footage... remember that they'd had 5 months to sort this out. I was able to supply email evidence of the situation, but still the lawyers weren't satisfied. In the end I had to ask Pat Murphy to telephone my contact at the company, which he did, and convinced him of the situation. But apparently this was still not acceptable — it seems that the legal team wanted something engraved on a stone tablet with Moses' signature! — and at 11 o'clock at night the producers were told they had to find another 6 seconds to go in its place.
So it would appear that the Off-Road edition (not now just Land-Rover it seems) of 'The World's Greatest Cars' will not include any reference to what we all know was the World's Greatest Expedition, and one of the cars that took part in it. But this chimes with my general experience of TV programmes made by non-enthusiasts — they want what makes a good visual story, and the exact detail is secondary. That's why I've preferred to work on my own for the past 35 years! But I will watch the series (already started on Thursday evenings at 2000 on Freeview 12), and have got the programmes on series record so I don't miss any. And I will look forward to the final one... but I won't enjoy it!
As we approach the Christmas/Midwinter/Saturnalia festivities (delete as is appropriate to your culture), may I wish you all the very best for the season, and sincerely hope that for all of us 2021 will be an easier, happier New Year. Would it be a bit crass of me to remind you of the DVDs and downloads, and Adam's marvellous photobook — all good Christmas present stuff! Details below.
GRAEME ALDOUS.
[Incidentally, the day I'm publishing this is the 64th birthday of my own Series 1, built at Lode Lane on November 27th 1956. Happy birthday, SXF870.]
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Previous 'First Overland' Newsletters are available here.
To subscribe to this Newsletter, and receive notice of updates, please visit my Subscribe Page.
The 'After Overland' web page is afteroverland.co.uk, and 'First Overland' is teeafit.co.uk/firstoverland.
And a reminder of my DVD titles still on sale, priced at £22 (including postage) worldwide — you can order them via the DVD sales page, where you'll also find the Vimeo streaming details, and of the Photobook of original 1955 expedition photos, put together by Adam Bennett.