London to Melbourne in a Bean 14 vintage car to replicate Francis Birtles’ amazing 1927 journey

It’s a Boys Own adventure: driving through desert, high mountain passes and avoiding war zones, in a century-old car from London to Australia. What on earth could go wrong?

Warren Brown, left, and Matthew Benns in London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

It didn’t take long for the striking red British Bean 14 motor car, starting an epic three months journey from London to Melbourne, to attract attention from passers-by and the Metropolitan Police.

Within minutes of it arriving in central London near the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall the police wanted to know what the journey was all about and they hammed it up for the cameras, including a blue light pullover.

Everyone it seemed wanted their photograph taken with the striking car and the vintage-attired drivers, The Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown and Sydney journalist Matthew Benns who are recreating the 1927 across the world adventure of Australian maverick Francis Birtles.

Brown and Benns were sent on their way by Miss England Milla Magee outside of Australia House on Friday.

Like Birtles’ send off, whose eight-month expedition driving the Bean 14 from London to Melbourne was waved away by 1927 Miss Australia Phyllis Von Alwyn, the duo’s first stop is Dunkirk and then across Europe to Athens.

Modern day tensions in the Middle East may mean a skirting of the exact Birtles route, which took in Iran and Myanmar, but they expect to be able to get to Saudi Arabia and then across to India.

“We will be home by ­Christmas,” vowed an enthusiastic Benns.

Brown, who thought up the idea 18 years ago as a way to ­acknowledge one of Australia’s great characters and to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, was excited to be finally getting on the road and he gave the car – top speed 90km/h – a quick final polish.

The car is a 1925 Bean model with upgraded rear differential, improved steering and suspension. But with the two drivers squeezing in the only narrow seat, Brown laughed and said it was a shame they hadn’t replicated ­Birtles five foot nine height and nine stone weight.

“We are sort of the 21st century fat guys,’’ he chortled, “but we will do it in all the gear from the 1920s, we going to be living the world of the 1920s’’.

And with that off they tootled.