FEATS OF ENDURANCE

Visitors to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, UK can now see until the end of October 2011 its latest exhibition, Feats of Endurance, featuring vehicles that have stretched the boundaries of motoring endurance both in extreme conditions and on challenging terrain.

Throughout history mankind has felt the need to explore and discover. With the invention of mechanised road transport, new challenges became possible and motorists and motorcyclists were soon pushing both themselves and their machines to perform new feats of endurance. Long journeys have tested drivers and machines from the earliest days of motoring, one of the earliest being the 9,000 mile Peking to Paris Rally in 1907.

Adventures have often taken vehicles where few thought it possible; penetrating the jungles of Asia and the rainforests of South America, enduring the frozen expanses of the Arctic and the vast arid deserts of Africa, Asia, Australia and South America.

Some gain satisfaction from completing a challenge simply because it is there; crossing a desert or traversing a continent. The desire to win is the driving force of those who compete in long distance rallying while, for others, motoring expeditions can be used to promote a cause, highlight an issue or test new technology.

The vehicles on display in the exhibition illustrate all these motivations, from the Austin Westminster that completed a 17,500 mile drive from Norway’s North Cape to Cape Town, South Africa in 1955, to the British team driven Land Rover 110 Turbo Diesel that won the Camel Trophy in 1989 and the 1978 Mini 1275GT and trailer that has twice driven round the world for charity.