Mollie on a mission

Mollie, a cream-and-tan 1960 Peugeot 403 wagon, was originally sold by Dependable Motors Pty Ltd in Western Australia and is thought to have spent her early years in Kalgoorlie.

She was rescued by Mal Dickie, who saved the wagon from being chopped up into a farm ute, and later came into the hands of Barry and Tina Mouritz in 2002.

Barry spotted her in an advert in the WA Peugeot Car Club magazine and struck a deal with Mal — all with the goal of entering the 2003 Redex Rerun, held 50 years after the original 1953 Redex Reliability Trials. This was the start of many adventures for Mollie, who is named after Tina’s grandmother.

That first trip involved 20,000km in total — driving east from Busselton to Sydney to join the start of the Redex — a 29-day, 10,228km rally.

Mollie had a few hiccups along the way, but her performance convinced Barry of her reliability.

In the 23 years since Barry and Tina took ownership, Mollie has travelled roughly 200,000km, taking part in numerous Hank Verwoert L’Aventure runs that have taken her across and around Australia — including Tasmania. In 2006, she was shipped to New Zealand for the Vero Rally, covering another 8000km on that trip alone.

Perth to Paris: In 2015 Mollie was shipped to Malaysia together with a Peugeot 504 and over the next four-and-a-half months travelled 25,000km overland through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and China — where the cars were driven to over 4000m twice, Tibet, Mongolia — rather novel accommodation for one night was a yurt. Russia took six hours to get visas stamped to enter the country and 10 minutes to exit into Kazakhstan. On to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, where temperatures got to 38C. Iran had the friendliest people of the whole trip, then Turkey and a visit to the memorials at Gallipoli. Bulgaria and on through Europe with a stop off at L’Aventure Peugeot Museum in Sochaux France before heading on to Paris and photos of the cars by the Eiffel Tower. Finally, a ferry ride to the UK where Mollie was shipped back to WA from Southampton.

USA, Canada & Alaska: In 2017 Mollie travelled to the United States and started a four-month adventure in Los Angeles. Firstly, heading east to Las Vegas on some of the old Route 66 and visiting the awe-inspiring Grand Canyon before travelling up the west coast to San Francisco, Oregon, Seattle and Vancouver. Here, fellow Peugeot friends Bob and Leonie Donoghue and Graham and Lyn McVean met up and travelled with Mollie in hire cars for part of the trip.

Mollie was invited to be part of The French Car Show in Vancouver, she had the company of a 403 Cabriolet – and then across to Vancouver Island. Travelling on The Alaska Highway as far north as White Horse in Alaska, across Canada through The Rockies with a ‘must do’ visit to Niagara Falls. A few days in Nova Scotia where Mollie was invited to take part in another car show, then heading down the east coast to Long Island and New York and onto South Carolina. Mollie was eventually shipped home six weeks later than planned from Charleston, the paperwork which was adequate for her to enter America for some reason was not adequate to ship her home!

Over the years mechanically Mollie has performed considerably well with minor problems (condenser, coil and replacement of brake wheel cylinders).

A big-end bearing had to be replaced on the 2009 Lap Of Oz trip in the caravan park workshop in Broome. Front shock absorbers have been replaced several times because of driving on very rough corrugated roads. And in 2014 she had a reconditioned engine installed in readiness for the Perth-to-Paris trip.

COVID put a hold on Mollie’s travels for a few years and a planned trip to Africa had to be rescheduled to 2024 – but that’s another story.

Trips

2003 Redex Rerun

2006 Vero Rally NZ

2007 PCCV L’Aventure Peugeot 2007

2009 PCCV A Lap of OZ

2011 PCCV South to North Trip – The Prom to Cape York

2013 PCCV East West Crossing – Cairns to Busselton

2014 PCCV Lowest to the Highest Trip – Lake Eyre to Mt Kosciuszko

2015 Perth to Paris

2017 USA, Canada & Alaska

2021 PCCV Outback Trip

2024 Africa