Well get this, a few years back i had a complete shed of a Rover 214 cabriolet as a stop gap car just to get me about. I knew the headgasket was on its way out but the car was worth peanuts anyway so i just planned on driving it until it died.
One day 10 miles from home the gasket finally gave up completly and the car overheated, i pulled over at a petrol station and re-filled the coolant system which was completly empty. set off again and within half a mile my 1.4 k-series had boiled away all 5 litres of water, thats how bad the gasket had gone.
I thought sod it and carried on driving the rest of my 10 mile journey home at an average 60mph with the temp needle above the red. Guess what? it still got me home. Went to start it the next morning and the engine had seized solid