Very few two-wheel-drive cars have ever made it to the summit of Snaefell, but such a feat was achieved in 1973 by an extraordinary individual driving a most unlikely vehicle.

At the time, a Fiat 126 was the smallest four-seater car on British roads and the challenge came about when someone said that a car had never been driven to the top of Snaefell.

Allegedly, one of the old black taxi cabs did conquer the island’s highest peak in the 1960s, but there is no pictorial evidence of that.

Allan ‘Kipper’ Killip, a former chief travelling marshal and well-known off-road motorcyclist, was up to the challenge and simply said: ‘I’ll give it a go.’

The little 596cc air-cooled twin-cylinder 126 had not long been launched and Kipper, chief salesman at local Fiat dealers Shore Garages, was aware the little ploy would attract a lot of interest.

A couple of Fiat UK bosses travelled over to witness the attempt, including Billy McMaster – a well-known figure in motorsport from Northern Ireland.

Kipper, always up to a challenge, confirmed that the vehicle was bog-standard, the only concession being a slight reduction in the rear tyre pressures.

He set off from the Bungalow area and traversed the lower part of the climb fairly easily. As the terrain became steeper and less tractable, he would stop, get out of the car and recce his next line of attack.

On the odd occasion that the car was appearing to be struggling, Kipper’s lightning reflexes, combined with the car’s rear-engine over the two drive wheels soon got it out of trouble - even resorting to reversing up the steeper gradients (right).

The only physical assistance he had was a lift from the support team over the mountain railway tracks before reaching the summit in an amazing 32 minutes.

To cap off the challenge, Kipper then drove it back down the hillside with three additional passengers.