Welcome to the 1977 London to Sydney Rally Website

This website is all about the Singapore Airlines rally that took place in 1977.
The inspiration and driving force behind the Rally was expatriate Australian Wylton Dickson, who also master-minded the 1970 London-Mexico and the 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rallies, it was designed to test man and machine on the longest driving event ever held. Competitors would be asked to drive 30,000 kilometres, in 30 days of driving and Singapore Airlines came on board as the Principal Sponsor to commemorate their 30 years in the airline industry.

During the Rally competitors would drive through 15 countries. The first stages of the rally would take the competitors from England through Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan into India. The second part of the rally would be through Malaysia to Singapore followed by, what was almost a rally in itself, the drive across Australia.

This website is a direct result of the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Rally at the French Car Display at the St Lucia Campus of the University of Queensland in July 2007. Following the release of ‘Reminiscences from the Navigator’s Seat’ by Peter J (Flash) Flanagan at the Display, Peter started to receive pictures and stories from various sources and, with the invaluable assistance of Nathan D’Addio, this site is now a repository for all those pictures, stories and bits of Rally information and memorabilia for all to enjoy.

It is a work in progress website and we would ask that you continue to provide any information on the Rally to email us so that it can grow and the information on the website become more complete, relevant and even more entertaining to all who visit this site.

Enjoy seeing and reading about the cars, crews and officials in different parts of the world and wonder at the temperament, the demeanour and the bravery/stupidity of all those who competed and officiated on this, the longest car rally in history.
New pages and photos are being uploaded to the gallery as they are received. Don’t forget to check what’s new on the website. Click here to look at the gallery. Go down further on this page to read the latest about this website.

Peter J. (Flash) Flanagan, Rally Participant, Website Idea
Nathan D’Addio, Website Developer

Read the news about the site below.

10 Responses to “Welcome to the 1977 London to Sydney Rally Website”

  1. iskender aruoba said on November 3rd, 2009

    Captain of Turkish National team
    Cars no 17 and 42 Oyak-Renault 12

  2. John Bryson said on November 4th, 2009

    Was thinking of Evan Green and punched up your site – it brings back memories of a very good Range Rover and some hard driving. Iskender, or
    Alexander to us, is a fantastic bloke and I hope to see him of we complete our entry in the 2010 Peking to Paris.. want to take our ’68 Marathon HK Holden so, good luck and I’ll read his words.
    He was very helpful when Gerry Crown and I were fighting for a place in the 1997 Peking to Paris and helped us shed 187 kilos from the EH Holden in Istanbul. He was running the Turkish Opel team and had tied up the championship that year.

  3. DEMIR BUKEY said on November 6th, 2009

    HI EVERYONE. AYTAC AND ISKO TOLD ME ABOUT THE WEBSITE.WHAT A GREAT IDEA. I MARRIED TO GAYLE BUKEY IN 1979 (JUST CELEBRATED OUR 30TH ANNVS)WHOM I MET IN PERTH DURING THE RALLY. WE HAVE BEEN LIVING ON AND OFF IN WA THE LAST 29 YEARS.

    I DO HAVE SOME PHOTOS ETC. I WILL DIG THEM OUT FOR THIS SITE SOON.

    CHEERS -DEMIR BUKEY CAR 42 TURKISH NARIONAL TEAM.

  4. Gary Whitcombe said on January 27th, 2010

    Hi there, I was in the Range Rover no 20 and also have a stack of pictures,film and stuff from the event. many many slides and a box full of press cuttings.I have been wondering what to do with it all,so will keep in touch.cheers to all. Gary

  5. Franklin said on June 5th, 2010

    Great Website with lots of interesting material!

    Just thought I would leave a comment as my dad has a full sized replica of car number 45, driven by Paddy Hopkirk.

    Here is a picture of it in action around a coned autotest:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/chevronsaver/4569032166/

    A plea to anybody with any pictures of the original car, please send them to this website so that we can create a very accurate replica of the car as the original is believed not to exist anymore.

    Thankyou.

  6. Steve Gee said on November 16th, 2010

    Just back from Stawell after very pleasant morning chewing the fat with Wes Nalder ..Driver Car 60). Suggestion being we have a re-union somewhere sometime, how about ALICE SPRINGS or maybe AYRES ROCK next year?? If you are interested email me and we will start to investigate if it is logistically possible.

  7. Steve Gee said on November 16th, 2010

    Or SYDNEY at the Opera House?
    …………………………………………………….OK sounds like a good idea but how about emails to contact@1977londontosydney.com so we do not bore everyone while we work out details FLASH

  8. tom delashmutt said on February 16th, 2011

    Car 21, the cosworth vega will be at the GM nationals at Carlisle, pa june10-13. First time out of the barn in thirty years. I rooted out the route books and slide(?)tray. Carlos and I wallowed in ancient history.

  9. Don E. Brown said on April 8th, 2011

    Does anyone know if Chris Bruce who hosts the other londonsydney website is still around? He put some of my writing on his site but I haven’t been able to get a response in a couple of years.
    I drove the #23 Jeep Cherokee with Cam Warren. I hope Bruce is OK and would appreciate knowing if he is still with us. Thank you all for any help you can give. Don E. Brown

    ………………………………………………..Don, I have not heard from Chris Bruce since the Rally so I will put it out there and ask if anyone else can answer your question? …. FLASH

    …………………………………..Yea, Bruce is still here, still doing it. Off to Cape Town getting ready for our London to Cape Town next January. What better thing can you get up after Christmas?…… PHILIP YOUNG

  10. Franklin. said on September 18th, 2011

    Hi all,

    Just to let you all know that I have created a website dedicated to our Car Number 45 Replica (Citroen CX, Paddy Hopkrirk, Bob Riley, Michael Taylor) –

    http://www.cxrallycar.webs.com/

    Thanks!

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