I met up with them at their one hour rest halt at South Queensferry. Having managed only one short sleep in a bed since starting, some of the competitors looked a bit bleary eyed. The Bentley crew seemed quite "chipper", and their steed was in fine fettle, despite the heavy rain on the route to Edinburgh.

Not so the 1967 Hillman Hunter of Steve Pickering and Simon Nagle. Using the LeJog to shakedown a rebuilt car is not the perhaps the best way of finding your rebuild problems. The pair reported a range of minor failures, in instrumentation etc. The problem they worked on when I talked to them was filing the rear wheel arch to stop it rubbing the tyre sidewall away. Widening the track seemed a good idea at the time, but the weight of the extra 40 litre fuel tank in the boot, together with all the tools and spares made the car sit very low, enough for the tyre to catch the wheel arch. Reminded me of the Trans Alpina in October, the Sprite displaying the same symptoms, and that was without any track widening! The Frenchmen Sebastian Delcourt and Olivier Chatain in a 1969 Mini Copper S also required some TLC as the front hub was removed to fix a failed wheel bearing.

While on the French theme, Jean Pierre Hermand and Georges Parsi in their 1975 Peugeot 205 saloon had a wicked sense of humour with "Le Frog on the LeJog" windscreen stickers amusing the passers-by.

Six Italian crews also joined the four french, seven German, Dutch and Swiss crews. I spotted a 1971 Alfa Guilia GTV crewed by the very grand team of  Averardo Borghini-Baldovinetti and Manfredi Terzi. They simply parked up for their break, no problems at all. Most unlike an Italian car!!

Reaching his own backyard, you could say, was Scotsman Kenny MacEwan in his 1956 Triumph TR3 with Shaun Arnold reading the maps. The regularities were a bit of a problem as the drive for the Halda gear from the gearbox had come adrift.

Robert and Susan Maclean's 1962 Rover P4 has done this many times before, as advertised by the number of past event stickers on the window.

On the Tour Neil Hadfield and Mark Humphries drove in a splendid 1955 Jaguar MkV11, whilst Rodney Marples and Martyn Watkins rode in style in a 1937 Rolls Royce 25/30, all 4257cc of it. Rodney was more worried about losing the Flying Spirit on the radiator cap whilst away for his break. I assured him that we were quite civilised in this part of the world! (now where did I put my screwdriver!)

As dusk fell at around 3.30pm on the dull but luckily dry afternoon, the cars departed for their trial northward through Scotland, with no sleep until they reached their destination, some 300 rally miles at John O' Groats at 0930 on Tuesday 8th December.

LeJog is a true endurance rally, not for the faint hearted, a challenge that draws crews from all round Europe and across the UK.

Updated 9 December 2009
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