It was the same model of car that clapped out when Hill drove from his Lancashire home to Edinburgh, where he ran one of the Commonwealth Games' greatest races in winning the marathon in 1970.

"It was falling to bits," said Hill. "Bits started dropping off and it was knackered by the time we got to Edinburgh." 

When Hill took the Austin to a garage, a mechanic fitted a new brake disc for £4.50, which was not a lot less than the vehicle's value. "He told me my car was worth £10," said Hill.

Unlike Fawlty's car, the Austin managed one last valiant effort. Hill drove home, with his wife May and young sons Steven and Graham, before the vehicle was scrapped. 

How many miles were on the clock? Hill cannot remember, but according to the Austin 1100 owners’ club a typical engine would have lasted between 100,000 and 120,000 miles. Considerably less, then, than Ron Hill himself.

Britain's most dedicated, innovative and remarkable long-distance runner covered a lot more than 120,000 miles without ever breaking down or having bits fall off. 

Just before the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, Hill worked out that he had run more than 158,000 lifetime miles. He ran at least a mile every single day for more than 50 years

To Chris Brasher, Olympic champion and co-founder of the London Marathon, Hill was "the greatest marathon runner ever to wear the British or English vest".

To The Guardian he was "the best marathon runner in the world" in the 1970s. His PhD in textile chemistry helped him to design clothing for athletes that was popular for decades and he had a worldwide influence on elite runners.diet and training.

He raced in 100 countries, often barefoot, and once broke the Boston Marathon record by more than three minutes. He held world records at 10 miles, 15 miles and 25 kilometres and he was awarded an MBE for services to athletics in 1971.

Hill's most famous victory came in the week when his Austin 1100 broke down. The field in Edinburgh could not have been stronger: it featured the four fastest marathon runners in the world in 1970, one of whom was Hill. 

He ran the race of his life to win by two and a half minutes. His time of 2 hours 9 min 28 sec was recognised by the Association of Road Running Statisticians as a world record - but not by the sport's governing body, the IAAF.

Hill was slower than the "record" set the previous year by one of the men he beat in Edinburgh, Derek Clayton. The Australian - who emigrated after being born and raised within a two-hour journey of Hill's home in the north-west of England - had taken the world record in 1967 when he became the first man to beat 2 hours 10 minutes.

In May 1969, Clayton bettered his own mark by more than a minute in Antwerp, but that record has always been disputed. The course was never adequately measured, never used again, and was said to have been anything up to a kilometre short. The Belgian Amateur Athletic Association managed to have Clayton's record ratified regardless. 

It meant that when Hill crossed the line in 1970, quicker than Clayton's 1967 time but slower than the disputed 1969 run, there was no great clamour for a world record.

Only twice has an athletics world record been set at the Commonwealth Games since they went metric - Marilyn Neufville's 400m for Jamaica on the same day as Hill's Edinburgh marathon and Filbert Bayi's sensational 1500m in Christchurch in 1974. 

Hill believes that his effort should have been recognised too. The fact that it was not rankled right up until his death.

"It was a world record as far as I'm concerned," said Hill. "The length of the course in Antwerp was measured in cars, which is not acceptable. The Belgians never answered any questions about the course."

If the IAAF had refused to ratify Clayton's Antwerp run - it would not have stood the test of current measurement rules - Hill would have held the world record for four years, until the next Commonwealth Games. The 1974 gold medallist, Englishman Ian Thompson, ran 16 seconds faster than Hill, the best time anywhere since the Edinburgh race.