Craig Shiel devotes two years to restoring the Datsun which conquered the London to Sydney Marathon

It was a project of passion for Craig Shiel to restore the 1975 Datsun 180B SSS that was famously campaigned by a Bathurst crew in the 1977 London to Sydney Marathon.

It was a rally that covered 30,000 kilometres, beginning with 12 days on the road from London to Madras. Cars were then shipped to Malaysia and raced to Singapore, shipped to Perth and contested stages around Australia before finishing in Sydney.

When Shiel laid eyes on the Datsun sitting in a shed two years ago, driving it one kilometre let alone 30,000 would've been a huge challenge.

But Shiel purchased the car and began the huge restoration process.

"It it was in very poor state, it needed rebuilding from start to finish, everything needed rebuilding basically. It was a very big job over the last two years," he said.

"I used to keep a log of [the hours], but I lost track of it after awhile. For quite awhile I was doing it on nights and weekends and I retired in January this year, so I was doing it full time from January until last month.

"I had to find bits and pieces on the internet and track down the original style wheels and mirrors and badges - it was a big project.

"It's come up really well. Lots of local businesses helped me as well as well in terms of redesigning the signs from photos and painting the car."

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Last weekend Shiel revealed his restoration to its original crew - Arthur Davis, Rod Jones and John Latham.

Shiel said the trio were "quite overwhelmed and really loved it". It revived plenty of fond memories with the car which Jones and Davis built all those years ago.

"They did the Southern Cross Rally, which is a pretty big rally in Australia, in '75 and '76 as preparation and then they did more modifications to the car and strengthened it all up, welded extra bits in it and it went off to the London to Sydney in 1977," Shiel said.

"I think there were about 70 or 80 cars in it, they started in 53rd position and they made it to the end, which a lot of cars didn't. They finished 18th.

"It was very good, you had some big operations. Like Mercedes had a four-car factory team, they had helicopters following the car and everything. But this little humble crew from Bathurst with three guys made it to the end in a pretty good position."

The Bathurst crew, who also placed fourth in class, had made progress reports of how their #53 Datsun was travelling throughout the rally and it enthralled residents of the city.

"Lots of Bathurst businesses had maps in their shop windows and mark their maps every day where the car was at," Shiel said.

"In recognition of that and the publicity they gave Bathurst, Bathurst council had a civic reception for them when they returned home and gave them the keys to the city."

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The Datsun was then sold to another Bathurst driver in Kevin McDiarmid and it added another chapter to its history. It raced in the 1979 Round Australia Trial.

That rally attracted 167 crews and covered 19,000km, with McDiarmid, Peter Phegan and David Travis finishing in 21^st position overall.

After 134 stages it was the Commodore VB that included Peter Brock as part of its crew which was declared the victor.

"I think it is the only rally car that has done the London to Sydney Rally and Repco Around Australian Trial," Shiel said.

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As for what Shiel's plans are for the car now - aside from admiring it - it won't be to add to its history of rallying.

"I was thinking of rallying it, but the more time and money I've spent on it, and the original guys are saying 'Oh you can't rally it now, you can't get a scratch or dent on it, so it will just go in car club events and tribute, historical drives and things like that," he said.

"Bathurst's National Motor Racing Museum are keen to have it on display there, so it will be in there for a few months early next year.

"They all said 'We're so glad you bought it and put all this effort into it. We'd hoped someone would do that with the car.' "

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