Saturday 9th October 1897

The editor of Autocar, Henry Sturmey, began the first Land’s End to John o’ Groats motor journey, which took 11 days to complete. The actual running time was 93.5 hours over 929 miles, to average nearly 10 mph. The car was a 4.5-bhp Coventry Daimler and the journalist described the trip as trouble-free. Clearly activities such as putting in new valves, wiring loose solid tyres back on and taking links out of the worn drive chains were just part of the sport!