At the time it was called the toughest motoring event in history. Whether it was or not doesn't matter. Listen to the stats: 167 cars started the 20,000km Round Australia Trial. Organisers said only 13 cars completed the full course. Another 79 made it to the finish in Melbourne. The crews had to drive non-stop for days. Cars caught fire and burnt to the ground.
And the romantic award of 1979 goes to legendary rally driver and navigator John Bryson, who married his co-driver, Sonia Kable-Cumming, in Broken Hill. Naturally they didn't celebrate their wedding night till they got to Perth two days later.
While Peter Brock, Matt Philip and Noel Richards steered the Marlboro Team Commodore to top spot and the other team cars took second and third, the real winner was GM.
As motoring journalist Mark Oastler wrote: "The Repco Trial attack was arguably the most audacious motorsport gamble by an Australian carmaker. GM-H really put all its chips on the table because had the new Commodore failed to conquer such a gruelling 20,000km ordeal — and pull it off with such apparent ease — a lack of buyer acceptance could have proved terminal."
Now the point of all this was to alert you to the least publicised event in recent motorsport history. The 40th anniversary recreation of the 1979 reliability trial started in Melbourne on Monday 5 August.