Thank Frankel it's Friday: How to drive through 15 countries in one day

More recently I was challenged to drive from Africa to England without filling up, which I duly managed in a diesel Mercedes, driving 1,223 miles along the length of both Spain and France averaging 73.6mpg, and even that failed to bore me to death.

But perhaps the most difficult challenge, at least of recent times, came last year. With one eye on its centenary this year and another on the fact I’d not spent more than a few hours driving Bentley’s new Continental GT, I cooked up a plan to see how many countries could be visited in 24 hours. Sadly but understandably Guinness World Records refused to sanction it, because even if we stuck religiously to the speed limits, it might encourage someone else to break the law trying to beat us. Undeterred I reported to the Belgium/Luxembourg border just before 5am one morning, where Bentley had arranged not only a relief driver in the form of former engineer and now PR man Mike Sayer, but also a Bentayga chase car full of tyres and spares we’d never need. Ever the optimist, Mike had booked us on a flight back from, wait for it, Greece.

It took a while for the plan to unravel. Through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Switzerland we stuck to our schedule, driving as fast as we possibly could without attracting attention, because we simply didn’t have the time for roadside interviews. But then we hit Liechtenstein, Austria and Italy and inexplicably heavy traffic, despite a very carefully planned and researched route. By the time we reached Slovenia, all hope of reaching Greece had gone. In its place came the very real prospect of ending the challenge in the middle of Albania.

We needed a plan B, which is where not merely relying on the sat nav, but having a proper paper map saved us. We were always going to go through Croatia and nip in and out of Bosnia, but if we then turned north instead of south east, we could trade Macedonia and Albania for Hungary and Slovakia. We might even make it to the Czech Republic, which would mean the same number of countries as on the original plan.

Almost at once, luck turned back in our favour, the roads cleared and we were able to forge through the former Soviet satellite states without delay. Indeed we did so well we not only knocked off all our intended countries but by the time we came to a full and final halt, we’d made it all the way to Poland. I don’t suppose anyone has ever set off intending to drive to Greece and ended up in Poland instead, but it made no difference to us. We’d covered 1,377 miles, spend less than half an hour on all stops combined and visited 15 countries.

And the Bentley? Well, for its superlative ride, refinement, sense of solidity, unimprovable seats and ability to revive a flagging driver with one quick blast from its 626bhp twelve cylinder motor, it would be hard to imagine any car doing the job any better. A true continental, in other words.

Before we set off, I promised my wife it would be the last such stunt I’d do. But the truth is once we’d realised our error and sorted out the route, it was almost easy, at least in a Continental GT. So maybe if someone has the right idea, I’ll be up for another. If you have one, don’t keep it to yourself.