Arriving on the end of an A.A. tow-rope, an Austin Allegro setting out to rally half way round the Globe has been transformed with the help of a wire-coat hanger, a roll of baco foil, the lid from the top of a coffee jar, and a tube of bathroom silicone gel… not even the prisoners of Colditz could match this for ingenuity.

Ian Shapland takes up the story:

Simon Ayris hesitated before taking on this job – it’s one thing to try to take a cheap old car that’s seen better days and enter a challenge of getting it toMongolia, but… to try getting there in an Austin Allegro 1100?

The Allegro is one of 300 cars entered for July's Mongolia Rally, which will be flagged away from London's Hyde Park, and is first time any Allegro has been entered for a long distance rally. Simon was told that this would be some sort of “first” in that nobody has ever done anything like this with an Allegro.

The reasoning for choosing an Allegro that Dominic Spill and his friend Patrick Sumby give is simply this: everyone else is in a Fiat Panda , a Suzuki SJ, a Peugeot 205 or a Nissan Micra, and to make it a real challenge, they want to take a car that was once condemned as the worst car Britain has ever produced. Dominic's sister Vicki found a cheap one-owner Allegro, it’s painted Seventies Beige, and was rapidly Christened Barney, something to do with the Flintstone’s. They expected to peel back the damp carpets and find holes in the floor, enough to allow the car to be pedalled along, hence its name, but Simon reckoned that while the car was shabby and rusty round the edges, the floor and general structure had survived the past 28 years rather well, its saving grace having been a sound rust-proofing process. The car cost Vicki £250, in fact she got £2 discount to cover her bus fare to see the car.

To make it even more challenging, the team’s chosen route rapidly became set on going via Iran, and then through the Taklamikan Desert, which in July will be just about at its hottest. Temperatures here are often 140F in the shade at this time of the year, so it won’t be just the stickers that will be curling up in protest. Its doubtful if Iran has ever seen Hydragas suspension, or an Allegro. Most of the other competitors are taking a simpler but less adventurous route through Russia.

The 9,000-mile route runs to the first checkpoint at Prague, then into Rumania to Istanbul, then across Turkey, Iran, and up through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakstan, a short couple of days in southern Siberia and then the Allegro team would cross into Mongolia, for a long haul on dirt tracks, and, often no tracks at all, to Ulaan Bataar.

The problem the team face is that its quite hard to fettle an Allegro even in Britain, and to attempt to take it into Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and then a crossing of the wilds of Mongolia where there are no roads, demands good suspension, and that means the simple sort you can repair by the roadside, like conventional springs, preferably attached to big wheels. All of Mongolia is off-roading, the country’s only tarmac is a few streets around the capital, Ulaan Bataar. What a tall order this is for any old car, let along an Allegro.

The team could not be persuaded to try another car – even a Marina was mentioned, and no sooner had the team plumped for the car, it would seem they have not been short of siren voices telling them it’s all a mistake and they have chosen a dud.

So Project Allegro quickly took shape in the workshop. Getting from Dominic’s home near High Wycombe to drive across country to just south of Witney, a journey normally that would take about an hour very early on a Saturday morning, ended up with Dominic pushing the Allegro into the yard, having had the clutch explode about a mile down the road. He’s not a member of the AA, but an AA patrolman saw the Allegro grind to a halt and stopped to help, and towed it for the last mile or so. Would any other car that suddenly breaks down win the instant sympathy of a passing AA van?

It seems driving an Allegro is a passport to friendship, just when you need a friend. Dominic is now about to join the AA – after all they give get-you-home break-down cover for Europe that stretches as far as the far side of Turkey.

Simon agreed to a schedule of jobs that would stop at 30 hours of work, so the shabby inside, standard seats, threadbare carpets, and bits of rust that is typical of a car that is 28-years-old are not on the job-list. Here is what we have done so far, and the hours are quickly racking up on the taxi-meter:

Dominic went to the Allegro Club spares day in Kent and spent £250, and returned with a radiator, a front wheel bearing (we need a second), steering joints, an extra spare wheel and some suspension items. The club donated a pair of later type halogen headlights, a useful touch. The Club have been really helpful and positive since they first heard of the Project.

Given the car cost him £248, Dominic was £500 down by the time he headed for home.

On top of that, Simon found a reconditioned engine and gearbox for sale on eBay. The team were going to fork out on a recon-unit from Mini Sport of Padiham, then spotted this – it’s a risk but then the whole venture is a bit of a risk. A deal was done to get the engine to arrive already fitted with a stronger diff-pin, and centre oil pick-up pipe. It's also fully dressed with carburettor, alternator, and long-centre-branch manifold, all thanks to the Leaton Mini Centre, Shropshire.

The next item of expenditure was a set of tyres – five Avon van-tyres tyres at £40 each, so another £200 in. Simon’s workshop have taken the wheels off, treated them to a coat of paint, and upped the tyres from 145x13 to 165x80-profile six-ply Avon Avanza A10s, these are really strong, with nice stiff side walls, and nicely unfashionably tall in profile to protect the steel rims. Steel is an advantage as any kinks can be tapped out, with hammer and screwdriver, and given this car will be driving a lot of the route chosen by the recent Peking to Paris, it will need to be able to drive over rocks the size of footballs, take in gulleys and sudden washaways, and the constant shaking of corrugations – hard ripples in the tracks caused by the heavy pounding of heavy trucks. Pressures at the moment are 33lbs all round, but it might go up a tad at the back.

A bonus from the taller tyres is that we have gained just over an inch in extra ground clearance. That’s really handy. Another inch will be found in experimenting with the pressures of the hydragas suspension.

A strip of reinforcing metal was bolted to the top of the roof, which hold long studs on which two spare wheels are mounted – this might hurt the fuel consumption, but its taken two heavy items out of the boot and so moved the centre of gravity to the middle of the car, and most essentially taken weight off the fragile rear suspension. Simon can’t see these Avons wearing out during the distance, and I will be surprised if they get more than one puncture, but two spare wheels and tyres will give the team some peace of mind. An inner tube and puncture repair kit is now in the boot.

River crossings are quite a worry, it’s something that you just can’t predict, so, the team need to plan for the very worst. Simon’s plan is to pipe the exhaust up at the back with a raised outlet, and give it lots of flexible joints throughout the system – the body flexes on a tarmac road round Witney so will be flexing even more in a desert. Simon is using heavy-grade tubing, 1.75 ins, with two boxes and some bendy joint stuff bought from Jetex of Banbury, who supply bits for home-made systems for the Max Power market. The exhaust system took three hours of labour.

The flex in the bodyshell is noticeable just working on the car in the workshop – when it’s jacked up by four pads under the floor, suddenly the doors get sticky and tricky to open without a firm tug, down to the body flexing. So Simon added to the job list a bit of reinforcement, a stout steel bar is going to be welded across the width of the car behind the back-seat squab joining up the two wheel arches, a steel plate is being welded up the inside of the sills inside the car, connecting the sill to the floor, and there is a triangle shaped gusset in the corner where the sill joins the box section that carries the rear seat. On top of that, four tins of builder’s aerosol foam was sprayed into the two sill sections. Additional welds around the seams in the suspension areas make sense but, we have to keep an eye on the time for all of this, and the fact that this really is strictly being prepared on a tiny budget.

What about the suspension? This is the team’s greatest worry. Simon found some Aeon rubber bump stops as used by the Abingdon Competitions Department for the 1800 Landcrab when rallied on marathons - these were also probably a favourite by caravaners. These are meaty, and twice the height, so, will take away some of the work the fragile hydragas units are going to have to cope with. Searching the website of Rally Design discovered a whole range of bump stop rubbers, and we found two red cone-shaped bump stops, two inches long and equally as fat, to fit on the front.

Batteries are past their prime if more than three years old, so a new battery is a must. On other long distance events, batteries shaking apart have been the downfall of a car. (Stirling Moss retired from the World Cup Rally across the Sahara in 1974 when his factory prepared Mercedes stopped with a battery that had shaken to bits inside). Simon is giving attention to the clamp over the top of the new diesel-spec battery and a sheet of rubber underneath to help cut down on the effects of vibration.

Another electrical job is applying lots of blobs of silicone round the electrical joints, to waterproof things really well. This also keeps out dust. The engine came with a K-N cotton-based performance air cleaner, and its been decided to keep this, only because the work-load is time-limited. Keeping the standard air cleaner, but replacing the paper element with wire wool, was on the original agenda.

The engine will be carefully run-in gently on Halford’s 20-50 oil, it comes in an old fashioned tin can, (a rich green in colour, the oil rather looks like good old fashioned Duckhams), but this will be changed before the start for Millers 20-50, as they do an oil specially for Minis and engines that incorporate the gearbox in with the engine, this oil is E.P.- rated for gearbox protection, (EP is Extra Pressure), and while its costing a few quid more than the Halfords stuff, it will hopefully do the job. It’s not synthetic, but very good – synthetic might be the dogs, but it tends to burn faster. And this oil can be mixed with anything found for topping up en-route.

Other little touches – Simon found a nudge-bar from a Mitsubishi Delicia, which will hopefully go across the front to give a bit of protection to the radiator. When stuck in sand the towing eye is usually buried, being low down, so the nudge-bar is something the lads can sling a tow-rope around. The team tried to find a Mini Moke bull-bar, but failed - this will be good enough.

One bit of treasure was found on the Mini Spares website, a slatted-style Mini Cooper sump guard, brand new for £20, similar in style to what was called “The Scottish” guard in days of old. This was thought to be well worth the money just for the steel alone. It covers the bottom of the gearbox nicely, after all the engine is an ex-Metro unit and the same dimensions as a Mini Cooper. Simon has got to work out how to mount it, and this means fabricating some serious metal-work. A sump-guard is only a strong as its mountings, but while there are stronger sump guards, the slatted style will help keep the gearbox cool, while angled nicely to skid over rocks.

Serious rallycars have the brake lines and fuel pipes routed inside the car, not under the floor, but there is not the time or budget for this. So, time for real ingenuity. Some Dexion-style U-shaped steel shelving material, the stuff used in offices with slots that allow shelves to slot in, is around an inch wide and once filled with silicone and bonded to the floor covering the brake pipes. It’s not something that will put up with high speed, but, a bit a protection for graunching over the odd rock in a river crossing. A sheet of rally-style under body protection, made of plastic, will cover the bottom of the petrol tank.

One little thing that is easy to overlook is fitting a decent petrol filter of the see-through kind into the fuel line. Picking up a mucky fill of petrol has to be considered par for the course on a trip of this kind. The best for this job is the Lucas item for trucks and tractors that looks like a jam-jar, and Simon is on the look out for one of these, meanwhile, a small see-through plastic job is now in the fuel-line under the bonnet.

The wheel bearings and other joints and knuckles will get a good grease up. Two wheel bearings have been replaced. Simon have found some waterproof grease, as used by yachting types for trailers that regularly get dunked into salt water, at the Performance Oils website (google Amsoil – the team can’t afford their high-performance oil but are using their grease).

Other finishing items: For £8 you can buy little LED lights in a bubble pack at hardware stores like Focus – these have sticky backs and come with batteries, so, that’s the map light for the co-driver sorted, and another light for the back seat passenger. Even less was spent on a sheet of wire netting of the type used as grilles for hamster cages, and this is going behind the slats of the standard radiator grille.

Talking of radiators, this one had a slight leak, which is hardly a big surprise, but finding a new one was surprisingly hard to track down. There was only one other alternative, and that was to send the radiator off to Serk Services, who then called up to say they could uprate it from the standard two-core to three-core, so this has been agreed. At £120 it’s one of the bigger items of expenditure.

There’s a half size jerry-can, and this will probably be strapped down behind the driver’s seat. Not exactly ideal, but a gallon of petrol weighs ten pounds and the strict rule we are applying to ourselves is to keep all possible weighty items out of the boot. That’s only for tents and sleeping bags.

This is a three-up crew, as in addition to Dominic Spill and his friend Patrick Sumby, Dominic's sister Vicki is also coming along. Weight is the biggest enemy of a long-distance rallycar, and there are no long hauls through the night, most other crews are two-up. However, the team insist that this whole idea started out among the three of them, and nobody can now be left behind. Vicki is a keen and super fit sub-aqua diver and recently took up off-road driving in her Land Rover, so I suspect the two lads might find it hard to condemn Vicki to being just a back-seat passenger.

All the pointers of past history suggest Project Allegro is doomed to failure. The factory rally team at Abingdon were once one of the most talented team of rally mechanics in the world, and they once built a rallying Allegro, and got Russell Brookes drive it. Of half a dozen events entered, it only finished once, and that was just going round the Forest of Dean. So, getting a rallying Allegro with a three-up crew all the way to Ulaan Bataar is some challenge. Among the ice cream vans, ambulances and other nutty cars on the entry list, there is no other team taking on the biggest possible challenge quite like the Allegro Team.

When this car was pushed across the yard to the workshop, Simon reckoned the chances of it lasting the distance at less than 50-50. However, we are not going to get anywhere by putting a downer on its chances – the team are brimming with infectious optimism, which I have to admit is rubbing off on the workshop. Andy Inskip who has driven across Mongolia is a highly experienced rally mechanic and has helped with the engine-transplant, with a day’s graft to help the project. Hopefully, by the time we have finished, Barney’s odds will have improved somewhat.

Lots of little things have transformed this car. A tube of silicone bathroom sealer has waterproofed the electrics, a wire coat-hanger has given the exhaust two flexible joints in the centre, some kitchen Baco-foil has helped protect the petrol pipe where it runs close to the exhaust manifold, a vent in the bonnet lets air escape but a pukka fibre-glass bonnet bulge from the Demon Tweaks catalogue is over £100, the Allegro now has one using half a lid of a Nescafe coffee jar, painted matt black.

What is this costing? The budget was £2,000 in workshop time and labour, and £1,000 in parts. This target might just have been met had it not been decided to buy the re-con engine on Ebay.

Keeping a hold of the workshop taxi-meter has been one of the hardest things of all in the preparation, but essential if the costs are to be kept right down. One thing is for sure, the Allegro now goes very well, sits two inches higher off the ground, and stands a good chance of going a lot further past Dover than when it was first pushed into Simon’s workshop.