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Reg hacks crawl from London to Brighton

Cantankerous 1904 jalopy no match for PARIS team

Sadly, our initial burst of speed lasted only until Brixton, where we took our first unscheduled pitstop:

Broken down on Brixton Hill

Cue a couple of RAC chaps, who kindly bodged our snapped oil line:

The RAC chaps tackle the problem

When I previously said we "thundered" out of Hyde Park, I meant it. The guy above is asking John: "So, you're the lot who wheelied it in the Park?"

Once we were back on track, nothing much happened until Crawley, apart from the loss of 66 per cent of our gear capability. The Crestmobile has two gears and neutral, and the latter and first gave up the ghost in Streatham.

This meant we had to slug it out in second, and use the brake to stop while cranking down the revs without stalling. Even if John managed that, the engine didn't then have enough grunt to pull without a helping hand, and as the traffic started to pile up around Croydon...

Stuck in traffic in Croydon

...the stall-per-mile figure began to rise...

John cranking the engine close to Crawley

...peaking in Crawley:

Stalled in Crawley

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