The steam-powered, shaft-driven four-wheeler, operating at 275psi, has two speeds and can reach about 70kmh.
Yet some may be questioning whether a 91-year-old vehicle that runs purely on coal, water and a driver’s wits will have the stamina to travel the 433km distance, let alone over the Lindis Pass.
Wheels at Wanaka Charitable Trust general manager Allan Dippie was confident the historic vehicle would make it and said he was delighted to have it participate in this year’s event.
"It’s a great effort bringing something so big from so far away."
He said it was being shipped from England to New Zealand on a cargo vessel and was due to arrive at Lyttelton Port soon.
"And then, unbelievably enough, they’re going to drive it from Christchurch to Wanaka.
"It won’t be fast, but it’ll be reliable.
"It’s quite an expedition.
"At the moment, it’s in the running to win the ‘longest distance travelled’ award."
The S4 is owned by Les and Dee Searle, of Horsham, West Sussex, England, and is one of a number of restored steam engines they own and operate under the name of the Horsham Traction Company.
Their two sons will crew the truck from Lyttelton to Wanaka over several days and will meet their parents at the Wheels at Wanaka event.
This is not the Searles’ first motoring adventure.
Last year they drove a 1937 Lagonda car all the way from New York to San Francisco, in the United States.
For them, their love of vintage vehicles creates fantastic family adventures.
Inspiration for the challenging S4 journey came from a conversation they had at their local English pub with some visiting "lads" from New Zealand, in 2023.
After several months of planning and research, the family agreed it would be possible to ship the S4 to New Zealand to take part in the event.
The trip is about 23,470km by sea and is expected to take two to three months.
The Searles said they hoped to make the most of the adventure by road and planned to run the S4 to various places around the country while they were here.
The S-type was manufactured in Shrewsbury and was renowned for being Sentinel’s last-ditch effort to maintain steam-powered vehicles on the roads of Great Britain.
Despite its sophisticated design for the time — with a modernised driver’s cab, a set-back boiler and four, six and eight-wheel format — it could not compete with contemporary diesel trucks for convenience and payload capacity, and was phased out in the late 1930s.
Mr Dippie said he expected the vehicle to be one of the major features of the Wheels at Wanaka on April 19-20.
