"Flames started coming from under the bonnet. I was terrified."

Deep into one of the longest, hardest and most remote motor races ever staged, Anthea Castell's car caught fire.

The battery had come loose and fallen into the engine, causing mechanical chaos.

"At that point I thought that was it," she says.

Anthea was in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, but her starting point had been Crystal Palace in London.

She and her team were part of the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon — a non-stop race covering 11 countries and almost 17,000 kilometres.

The London to Sydney Marathon car rally started at Crystal Palace in November 1968. ( Getty: Rolls Press/Popperfoto )

Professional drivers and total amateurs from all over the world formed 98 teams, with just three all-female crews.

There was a 10,000-pound prize for the first team to Sydney, as well as smaller prizes for the best manufacturers, best-performing amateur entries and the first women's team to cross the line.

British businesswoman Elsie Gadd had recruited her countrywoman Anthea as an inexperienced navigator in her car, along with two professional racing drivers, Sheila Kemp and Jenny Tudor-Owen.

"Elsie was a strong and determined woman but I don't think she realised just how much was involved with the rally," Anthea says.

"I think I'd have to say [the car] wasn't really prepared."

The car in question was a Volvo 145S station wagon, which, but for a few weighty modifications, was a stock standard family station wagon.

London to Sydney? You bet

The first seven days of the marathon rally saw drivers go through Europe, into Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and then India.

In Bombay, the first 70 cars then boarded a ship to Fremantle.

They raced across Australia in under three days via the Nullarbor Plain, Flinders Ranges, Western New South Wales and the Australian Alps.

Among the competitors was Rosemary Smith, a professional rally driver from Ireland who was used to being on the podium.

"I went out to win," she says.

Rosemary Smith, pictured here a year before competing in the 1968 London to Sydney race. ( Getty: Mike McLaren )

She and French co-driver Lucette Pointet entered the race with one of Ford's factory teams, and were highly favoured to do well.

Even though Rosemary had already won rally events outright, beating her male counterparts, her local publican in Dublin was not convinced a woman could complete a 17,000-kilometre race.

"He said: 'You're never going to make it ... little women shouldn't be driving cars,'" Rosemary says.

"I thought: 'Well, hump you and all this looking down on women drivers — I'll show him.'"

The disagreement resulted in a wager: if Rosemary completed the race the publican would throw her a party at the bar to celebrate.

Rosemary was a driver, but also a model, fooling some into misreading her capability for an endurance event like the London to Sydney.

"They didn't realise that my false eyelashes were there for a purpose. They just thought I was being a dolly bird," she says.

"At one stage we drove 60 hours non-stop. If you have false eyelashes on, when your eyes start to close from tiredness, the lashes come down and you see a veil in front of you.

"It wakes you up very rapidly."

Rosemary would need all her driving skill and a good dose of luck to get to the finish.

Beware the end of bitumen

Teams generally took turns to sleep, drive or navigate, depending on the size of their crews.

But it was easier said than done on the unsealed and increasingly remote roads; both Anthea and Rosemary ran into trouble.

The Volvo Anthea's team drove in the race wasn't suited to the harsh conditions. ( Supplied: Anthea Hartley )

"In Turkey the corrugation went on for about 22 hours. The roads were loose gravel so you could lose it on the bends quite easily," Anthea says.

"It was like driving on ball bearings."

As the race reached Pakistan and the infamously treacherous Khyber Pass, Rosemary had to call on another trick of the trade.

Her Ford Cortina had developed a mechanical problem which greatly reduced its power.

"The car just wouldn't go any further. I had more power in reverse, so I turned around and did the whole 73-kilometre stage backwards," she says.

Anthea's Volvo was also being battered by the pace and terrain of the marathon.

"We'd got three- to four-inch cracks up the door pillars, across the roof and in the wheel arches," she says.

"If you stood at the back of the car you could see the whole thing was bowing out at the sides."

A nine-day sea voyage took the cars from Bombay to Fremantle, giving some welcome respite for the crews.

It also gave the Australian drivers a chance to exploit their home advantage by regaling the Europeans with the horrors of driving in the outback.

Kangaroos, wombats, massive pot holes, huge clouds of dust and roads that barely existed were all ahead of the competitors.

In spite of the desperately harsh Australian conditions — and thanks to Rosemary's engine troubles — Anthea's team were the leading all-female crew at the race progressed across the continent.

They were in with a shot of claiming the women's prize, but only if they made it to Sydney.

An unlikely partnership

Max Winkless with his wife Jeanetta, before he flew to London for the start of the race. ( Supplied: Max Winkless )

Max Winkless was the New South Wales rally champion and had entered the race full of confidence in a Volvo 144S, but this wasn't to be his race.

Max and his co-driver John Keran had snatched a spot on the ship but were out of the competitive running: their engine had blown up in Yugoslavia.

When Max saw the strife Anthea's car was in, he was "worried the chassis was going to split in half".

Then he came upon an idea. "Let's help these girls, let's see them through to the end. And that's what we did, we helped them all the way back to Sydney."

The decision was based on sporting chivalry and promotional opportunity; Max's team sponsor Amoco would happily promote the all-female team.

"It was a little bit of certainly both," Max says.

"I thought 'wouldn't it be great to see them do it?', but I was convinced Rosemary Smith would win the women's prize with all the support she had from Ford."

Anthea's team now had two sponsors, the financial backing and logistical help of Amoco as well as Max acting as a support car.

Elsie Gadd's car racing team in 1968 (L to R): Sheila Kemp, Elsie Gadd, Jenny Tudor-Owen and Anthea Castell.

"They were like long-lost friends coming to the rescue. We were so grateful," Anthea says.

When the battery caught fire in the Flinders Ranges, it was Max that got them going again.

After 10 days of 24/7 racing the station wagon limped into Sydney, its chassis welded back together six times.

But all that work paid off: Anthea's team won the women's classification.

"Given the state of the car it was nothing short of a miracle that we did make it," she says.

"There was nothing left of the car. It was absolutely shocking."

Rosemary made it to Sydney in spite of her mechanical woes — though she placed 48th out of the 56 cars that made the line.

"If I'd only had a decent car that stayed together we would have been high up overall," she says.

"I wasn't used to finishing so low down in any event and this really annoyed me, but at least I'd done it."

She returned home without a trophy, but the publican kept his promise: there was a party to go to.

"There was smoked salmon and champagne and everyone was there. It was really nice of him," Rosemary says.