A FOUR-MAN Bermuda-based rally team sets off next month to tackle the London-Sydney marathon which covers 15,000 km spread over seven countries and several continents.

The epic 30-day adventure will see them motor up the Alpes and along Mediterranean before taking in the highlands of southern India and the remote Australian outback.

Aon bosses Laurence Noble, Robert Johnston and Paul Markey will team up with Paul's son Charles for a journey covering 500 km a day.

They hope to raise $150,000 for charities including funds for the the Rhondelle Tankard Fund.

Named after an Aon colleague who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks the fund helps pay for training of young Bermudians who want to get into the insurance industry.

Noble is no stranger to adventure having motorbiked across Peru, the Australian outback and Europe as well as taking the controls of a spitfire in Sante Fe and England.

He has held a pilot's licence for ten years, has flown Russian MIGs and a few American jets and can do aerobatics.

Noble also entered the Paris to Dakar motorbike rally in January last year and completed five days of the desert race before becoming stuck in sand dunes in southern Tunisia.

However he did better than one rider who lost his life in the gruelling rally.

The London-Sydney is not as serious as the Dakar which was straight across the desert, says Noble. He recalls: "With the Dakar trip you are not on roads, you are in the middle of nowhere.

"With the London to Sydney you are in a hotel every night, you are pretty much in civilisation with the exception of the outback. It's not going to be as difficult.

"The main thing with this one is that it's for classic cars, although we are not in that class. There will be people there in 20-30 year old cars. That makes it more difficult for them on the mechanical and reliability side.

"We just want a bit of fun and get to the end."

Roughly two thirds of the 100 participants are professional racers in classic cars, from Porches to Ford Cortinas and Morris Minors. Some of the drivers are doing in in the original cars they used in the first rally in 1968. There has been one London-Sydney rally since.

However the Aon team will be travelling in a fully equipped Nissan Pathfinder and competing in the Clowes Cup, which is the amateur side of the event.

The SUV four-wheel drive vehicles are provided by the rally organisers who are selling them for $27,000 and buying them back in Australia, where they were first bought from, for about $19,000.

Noble says: "It's a brand new vehicle. We just put our logos on it and jump in it and drive it. It's real easy for us. We don't have the hassle of buying a car.

"Compared with an Avis four-week rental it's pretty expensive but considering what we are doing with it, it's not too bad."

The vehicle as plenty of carrying room for extra water which will be useful for driving in barren parts of India and Australia.

Johnston says it's a car which British TV motoring correspondent Jeremy Clarkson, of Top Gear fame, has compared to the Hummer.

"He says if you look at any of the insurgencies around the world all the militia men are always driving around in Toyota Forerunners or Nissan Pathfinders.

"These things seem to be out in the bush and are completely indestructible."

However the group do not plan on overthrowing any Governments during the London to Sydney race which runs from June 5 to July 4.

Markey said he had wanted to do something special to mark his tenth year in Bermuda, his 50th birthday and his son Charles' graduation.

"I had thought about a few likely tasks ? climbing to the base camp of Everest or going back to Africa but nothing really gelled until I heard about the London to Sydney rally and things started to come together."

The plan was sealed over beer talk at a Christmas party.

"We all like cars. There was this rally posted in one of the auto magazines and one thing led to another.

"It's the sort of event I would have liked to have done 30 years ago when I was a hot-shot with no responsibilities.

"The other really good part is my oldest son Charles is going to be the fourth driver who is graduating at the end of May.

"He's actually going into the auto-design business."

As a mechanical engineering student the former Saltus student will be welcomed for practical reasons although his musical tastes might not be. "Most of the stuff he listens to is unintelligible," says his father ruefully.

Johnston adds: "Paul's and my motivation for having a car is comfy seats, air condition and will get us there."

But the men are under no illusion the drive will be quite gruelling.

Says Noble: "You might have 300 miles to cover in a day, most of that's on public roads and you have got to stick to the speed limit but every so often you have a special stage.

"It's either on private land or they close a public road to traffic and on that you are actually racing.

"If you have two special stages at the end of the day the person with the fastest aggregate time is the winner.

"The rest of it is getting from A to B. That's where you are supposed to stick to the speed limits in theory but in practice you usually end up going pretty fast on the public roads because they normally try to do an average of 30 miles an hour but if you get stuck in traffic you have to do 50 or 60 to make the start."

The special stages are being kept under wraps to add to the excitement. Johnston says: "You get a racing pack each day with a race preview and route.

"We have all travelled the world in our business and personal life. It's an opportunity to go back and visit some places we haven't been to for a while like India, which is a fantastic place, and Australia where I lived in ten years ago.

"I never got to see Ayers rock but it's the entry point for where we land in Australia."

Noble, who like Johnston is 46, says he his looking forward to India and Turkey which are new to him as well as driving across the outback.

The route has taken out dangerous sections of the middle east. "It should be relatively safe" says Markey. "The piece in India is a loop around mostly tea plantation type roads.

"They try to keep you away from too much other traffic.

"I think India will be fascinating and you don't get to see Australia in that sort of perspective."

After each continentals stage, all the vehicles are being airlifted in two Antonovs to the next continent while the crews fly on Airbus 300's. The first jump will be from Ankara in Turkey to Cochin in India and then from Cochin to Alice Springs in Australia.

The trip will cost up to $85,000 with the three men putting in around $50,000.

Excess sponsorship funds will go to charities including Masterworks and the Bermuda Careers Centre as well as the Rhondelle Tankard Fund which stands at $100,000.

But despite the serious intentions and the daunting task ahead the men are looking forward to letting their hair down during the rest days and to rotating driving duties.

Says Johnston: "We can get trashed every third night."