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I tend to agree with Hamish.

If you take a globe, and place a ball bearing at Land’s End, you have to push it uphill to  John O'Groats'.

However, once at John O'Groats' all you have to do is let go of the ball bearing and it will roll down to London.

From that I guess that the TR involved in the “Race” simply turned his engine off at John O'Groats' and did not need to use any petrol until he reached London.

Charlie.

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1 hour ago, Richardtr3a said:

There would be no power steering??

Ah…
Of course…
And the air conditioning compressor would have no longer worked. (Could be a problem passing through the “Jet stream belt”.)

And the brake servo would have no vacuum.
(Tricky joining the Finchley Road from the Hendon Way without power assisted brakes.)

Charlie.

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Couldn`t possibly do it now.  You can find an Auster, and we have plenty of TRs, but in the sky there are no roadworks or speed cameras, the plane would easily win.

Ralph.

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I'm not so sure the plane would win. If you planned the journey correctly so that you hit the built up areas of Manchester and Birmingham at the right time, ie around midnight, then it ought to be able to maintain a steady speed. Bearing in mind there were no motorways back then it was  a very impressive result for the TR3.   As for the Auster,  where did it take off and land?  They must have used old RAF airfields  like St Just at Lands End and Wick at Kohn O'Groats as they are the closest to those destinations and if so did the pilots drive to and from those airports or use 'public  transport' like the Top Gear team did year later on one of their races? 

Now there's a worthy challenge for next year. Any takers? 

hogie. 

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18 minutes ago, Paul Hogan said:

PS where has the edit button gone? 

The three little dots on the top right of your post Paul. 

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1 hour ago, Paul Hogan said:

I'm not so sure the plane would win. If you planned the journey correctly so that you hit the built up areas of Manchester and Birmingham at the right time, ie around midnight, then it ought to be able to maintain a steady speed. Bearing in mind there were no motorways back then it was  a very impressive result for the TR3.   As for the Auster,  where did it take off and land?  They must have used old RAF airfields  like St Just at Lands End and Wick at Kohn O'Groats as they are the closest to those destinations and if so did the pilots drive to and from those airports or use 'public  transport' like the Top Gear team did year later on one of their races? 

Now there's a worthy challenge for next year. Any takers? 

hogie. 

With an Auster they would have just used fields adjacent to each site back then.

Stuart.

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I don't think that 43mpg is out of order.  I seem to recall that the TRs racing (not touring) in the Le Mans 24 hours managed over 30mpg, and a TR on the Mobil Economy Run achieved over 70mpg - but that was using clever dodges (over-inflate tyres, engine not running when travelling downhill etc).

When travelling at a steady touring speed, the early TRs were amazingly efficient and economical.

I tried to find the exact figure for Le Mans, but have forgotten where it appears amongst all the books sitting behind me.  I feel sure someone else will find it.

Ian Cornish

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On our trip to Nordkapp, Norway in June 2015 in the TR3 we did 3,598 miles in three weeks and averaged 41.09 mpg. A lot of driving in Norway was restricted to 80 or 90 km/hr which helped the fuel consumption. Lots of speed cameras to keep you vigilant as the fines were heavy, as some of the group found out.

Mick

My trusty TR3 at Nordkapp small.JPG

Just a light sprinkling of snow small.JPG

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