Coys Auction - Grand Prix, Competition, Touring & Rally Cars and Collectors' Items
Autosport International - The Racing Car Show
National Exhibition Centre
Birmingham
B40 1NT UK
Saturday 16th January 2009
Collectors' Items at 12.30pm
Motor Cars at 3.00pm
Registration Number: LFV 68F Chassis Number: BA91HB58686
The original Marathon was the result of a lunch in late 1967, during a period of despondency in Britain caused by the devaluation of the pound. Sir Max Aitken, proprietor of the Daily Express, decided to create an event which his newspaper could sponsor, and which would serve to raise the country’s spirits. Such an event would, it was felt, act as a showcase for British engineering and would boost export sales in the countries through which it passed. Jack Sears, organising secretary and himself a former racing driver, plotted a 7,000-mile course covering eleven countries in as many days, and arranged that the P&O liner S.S. Chusan would ferry the first 72 cars an