You can credit Walter Hayes for the idea. He thought that a fast Ford could drive overland, through Equatorial Africa, and across the Sahara desert, and beat one of the elegant Union Castle liners. These days it takes only 12 hours to fly non-stop from Cape Town to London and there isn’t an alternative. However, in the 1960s it could also take 12 days, if, that is, you travelled aboard the Union Castle’s best.
Hayes’ call to Ford long-distance expert Eric Jackson was short and sweet: “Eric, it’s time for another marathon drive. Call Ken Chambers, reserve two weeks in May — you’re going to race the Windsor Castle back from Cape Town.”
Jackson, a long-time member of the Ford rally team, didn’t even blink. He and fellow-Yorkshireman Ken Chambers had tackled stunts like this before. So what if it was through Africa, the Congo and the Sahara in a Corsair?
Against the odds
For Hayes, it all started with a bet. Union Castle representatives had attended a Ford dealer convention in Nairobi at Easter. The shipping firm thought it could always provide faster, more reliable, and more comfortable travel from South Africa to the UK, but Hayes,
