Sun 15th September 2019 at 09.00 – Sun 6th October 2019 – 23.55
Recreating a historic 2,000 mile journey to Lake Bled in Slovenia in a 60 year old 3 wheeler to raise funds for Polio Eradication.
Sixty years ago in 1959 Claude Tipper, a racing car driver, automotive artist and motoring journalist drove a Bond Mini Car registration NCK 373 to Bled in Slovenia. He in fact completed 5,217 miles touring Europe in that year. Nick and Sandra Mander now own this car, and in a light hearted moment thought it would be idea to redo this trip 60 years on. Needless to say others in the Bond Owners Club thought this to be an ideal event to be involved in, so the planning and reality came into place.
Northwich Rotarian Clive and Andrea Steggel will be joining this historic trek in their sister car to the NCK 373 being NRN 897. Originally manufactured in 1958 and also used as a demonstrator completing 135,000 miles before being sold on by the manufacturers in November 1964. In total 5 Bond Mini car three wheelers and a support vehicle will be completing the journey.
Clive and Andrea are using their car to raise funds and awareness for Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign as they travel across Europe and back. All donations will be matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation two for one, so every £1 they raise will be tripled.
Click here to see full itinerary
To support Clive in this bold endeavour simply follow this link:- BondstoBled
The 2000-miles to Bled
Bond Mini Cars were originally designed and built in Preston Lancashire from the late 1940’s to the mid 1960’s as economy cars for local journeys. Owners realised they could travel further than that.
The Bond Minicars which are going in order of age are; –
A white mid-50s Mk C, owned by Mike & Renate. Over the last couple of years, this has been brought back to life by Mike, who has included many modifications to give the car better performance and usability – including the unusual feature (for a Mk C) of having a door on BOTH sides!
A green 1958 Mk F Tourer, NRN 897, owned by Clive and Andrea Steggel, who have the largest known collection of Bond cars and motorcycles. This was initially a factory demonstrator and carried out some surprising road tests – including one journalist taking it for a week camping holiday in Switzerland! Clive is a member of the Northwich Rotary Club and is using this car to raise awareness for Rotary International Eradication of Polio Appeal which the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation are supporting.
A red 1959 Mk F Tourer, NCK 373, nowadays owned by keen long-term Bonders Nick and Sandra. This car was originally a “factory demonstrator” – a car lent by the factory to journalists, for road-tests and press reports. It is the very same car which carried out a European tour of 5,217 miles in 1959, driven by the racing-driver, automotive artist and motoring journalist Claude Tipper. It toured through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, the Republic of San Marino, and France. The driver did a painting of the car with Lake Bled in the background and it is this that inspired our trip – taking the same car, to the same place, almost exactly 60 years later. It was Nick’s idea to re live the adventures of his car of 60 years previous.
A green 1960 Mk F saloon, owned by Dennis. Dennis has had Bonds for decades (since his student days) and is resident cartoonist for the Bond Owners Club magazine “Bond Info”. Travelling with him will be keen Club member Will a long time Bond owner.
A red 1965 Mk G Tourer, owned by Dave. It’s known that in the 70s, the car’s teenage owner drove it from the UK to Barcelona. (And, yes, successfully back again!)
A back up Mercedes beaver tail truck will be supporting the Bonds driven by Nick with co-driver and photographer Emma.
Both the NRN 897 and the Mercedes support vehicle are both being sponsored by CRS Consultants. www.crs-consultants.com