IT WAS the solid, dependable car a 1970s vicar could drive, not one you would expect to be racing in a rally for thousands of miles across the world.

But in 1970, three women including Bronwyn ‘Bron’ Burrell who now lives in Milford-on-Sea, drove an Austin Maxi across Europe and South America.

The all-female rally crew consisting of Bron, 25, Tish Ozanne, 45, and Tina Kerridge-Reynolds, 29, took part in what has been described as “the most arduous car rally in history” – the 1970 Daily Mirror World Cup Rally.

The rally crossed 16,173 miles and 25 countries in 24 days and included a total of 240 pros and amateurs in 93 cars tackling raging rivers, scorching deserts, steamy jungles and 15,000ft mountain tracks.

Now 47 years later, the original car nicknamed ‘Puff the Magic Wagon’ and two of the ladies are to take part in a number of rallies and events including the London-to-Lisbon rally in April.

Bron had been interested in motor sports since her late teens and by 1970 taken part in a number of rallies across the UK and Ireland. Tish Ozanne, who owned the car, brought together the team for the rally, having already known of Tina’s rally driving skills.

There were four Maxis in the rally, two of which managed to finish the race. One Maxi that didn’t finish was driven by Prince Michael of Kent and crashed in South America. The other that failed to finish was Puff, which got stuck in a ditch in Argentina.

Tina now 76, said: “It was the toughest test of my competitive driving. We started on the Sunday and didn’t stop until we got to Monza on the Wednesday.”

“In Yugoslavia we came to a bridge with planks of wood missing so we had to find another route. At one point we did 65 miles of unsurfaced roads in the Alps with breath-taking drops. They were scary. It was the longest, toughest, highest rally in the world. Nothing has beaten it.”

Bron added: “Before we started we were offered guns by the race organisers in case there were bandits but we turned them down.”

The Maxi changed hands several times after the rally, and even spent some time in Italy, but was eventually found in a chicken shed in Huntingdon in 2009.

The reunion of Bron and Tina tooke place in 2013 when Bron found Tina on the internet. Sadly, Tish had died four years earlier.

The two ladies were reunited with the car that year. Bron kept in touch with the owner and eventually bought it off him in June 2016.

Now they are planning to tour the UK and will take Puff on a number of events and rallies in the UK and Europe.

This month the two met Sir Michael Marshall, whose firm Marshalls of Cambridge had originally sponsored and prepped the car in 1970, converting it for rally use.

On returning to rallying Bron said: “I am thrilled to be rallying again. Everyone thinks I am mad doing it at my age. I’m 72 and a half, but I only feel about 50. It’s not what you do in life it’s what you don’t do that you regret.”

Tina added: “It is absolutely fantastic. I shall be 78 in June. But we are lucky at our age that we are fit and able to do it.”