THE DUST
Cowan Asked for a Car to Come Last and Won London to Sydney
In 1968 Andrew Cowan took a plain Hillman Hunter more than 10,000 miles from London to Sydney, and the slow, tough car outlasted every faster one.
Updated October 28, 2026
He wanted a slow, tough car that would just keep going.
November 24, 1968. The London to Sydney Marathon leaves London. Two newspapers put it together to lift British spirits, and the winner's prize is 10,000 pounds. The route runs more than 10,000 miles through Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
Andrew Cowan is a Scottish rally driver. His car is a Hillman Hunter, a family sedan, wearing number 75. He shares it with Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle.
Cowan had asked the Rootes factory for a car to come last. He figured only a handful of cars would ever reach Sydney. He wanted one that would not break.
The fast cars go out front. Roger Clark leads across Turkey in his Lotus Cortina and holds it to Bombay. The cars ride a ship to Fremantle, and nobody is allowed to touch them on board.
Australia is where the rally gets cruel. Clark loses a piston. Then a rear axle. He buys a replacement off a stranger's Cortina by the road. A German Ford hits a gate post. Cowan keeps moving up without doing anything flashy.
On the final competitive section, Lucien Bianchi and Jean-Claude Ogier lead in a Citroen DS. Ogier is driving and Bianchi is asleep. A few miles from the Nowra control, a car coming the wrong way on the closed road meets them head on. Both men go to hospital.
Paddy Hopkirk stops to help. Cowan comes along next and is waved on.
The plain Hunter rolls into Sydney first. Hillman dealers in Australia soon have more orders than cars.
What is the most boring car you ever owned that never let you down?
True races. Still kicking.