The Original Redex Trial
It was September 1953 and Australians were in the grip of Redex Trial fever. The newspapers and radio stations were bringing to a spellbound public terrific tales of daring driving, bush-bashing, high speeds, crashes, hardship and amazing ingenuity as 187 cars tried to conquer the harsh Australian outback.
Aussies all over the country were following blow-by-blow radio and newspaper descriptions of the long-distance reliability trial that had almost stopped the nation. The event was receiving huge media coverage of the kind that’s today seen only on rare occasions; such as the opening of an Olympic Games or a World Cup final. Except that the Trial lasted 14 days, not a mere few hours.
A crowd estimated at 50,000 had jammed Driver Avenue outside Sydney Showground on August 30th to see the cars off. A further 150,000 lined the streets through Sydney’s northern suburbs to Hornsby to watch them whistle by on the early stages of their hectic motoring adventure. Great excitement had been generated prior to the Trial because life in Australia was finally returning to normal in these early post-war years. Additionally, the competitors were driving standard cars the public could relate to. Holden and Ford supporters were already locked in the fierce rivalry that continues to this day. hryslers and Plymouths were entered, as were Jaguars and Humbers, among many other big cars. The general feeling was, then as now, that you needed a big car to conquer a big country, but there was a good number of small cars as well. Austin and Morris models were relatively popular, there was even a contingent of MGs and a Porsche.
But the number-one choice among small-car adherents was a French machine - the Peugeot 203. A modern post-war design using Peugeot’s first monocoque body, the 203 already had a reputation for strength and reliability on rough Australian roads. No fewer than eleven Peugeot 203s were entered; only Holden with 23 of its 48-215 sedans and Ford with 12 Customlines had bigger representations. Most people thought the small European cars were just there to make up the numbers but, 14 hard-driven days later, they were to be proven wrong.
No one paid particular attention to an entry crewed by driver Ken Tubman, a local chemist, and his navigator, Victorian John Marshall. The two had previously met over a beer or three in the Maitland golf club. Marshall had already organised the entry of a Peugeot 203 and was looking for an experienced rally driver because his original partner had dropped out. Tubman, aged 37, had plenty of race and rally experience behind him, including racing an MG K3 at Bathurst. He was keen to enter the Trial but admitted to having some doubts about using a small car instead of a traditional Australian six or an American V8. He soon changed his mind.
The 1953 Redex ran mainly on sealed roads for the first two days but the cars ran into real Aussie bush on the third day, after turning left at Townsville in northern Queensland. They struck corrugations, culverts, cattlegrids, washaways, dry creek beds and much else that the vast, hot, harsh continent could throw at them. Not only did Ken Tubman and John Marshall come home ahead of far bigger and more powerful cars, but astoundingly their Peugeot 203 was in near mint condition.
That first Redex Trial has gone down in the annals of automotive history, indeed, into the mythology of Australia, as one of the harshest long-distance motoring events ever run. It had everything: controversy and crashes, heroism and hedonism, mechanical magic and mayhem.
