February-March 2019
fordt@xtra.co.nz
Happy New Year to all members and their families, and hope you all had a good one with the good weather that we have been having. Max Rutherford and Tom Macey have organised a run on 27th January starting and finishing from the clubrooms, so it would be good to see you all there — details elsewhere in this mag. The Mini Vin that Colin puts on every year will be held in February so remember to keep the 24th free — details elsewhere. Our Branch A G M is approaching in May and we need to start thinking about who we want on committee as all positions will be available. It is with sadness that Steve and I advise that June (Steve's Mum) passed away on Boxing Day. We would like to thank those members who attended Mum’s funeral. Safe Motoring Veronica Oliver Chairperson
As I write this report we are getting the first decent rain of the new year, lucky we got our picnic trip to Tongaporutu done yesterday when the sun was shining. A lovely outing with the members of the Morris Minor Club and a few from our Branch. Coming up in the next few months are some local and other Branch events that we could attend so hoping to see some of you at those. Check John’s report for a list . For those of you who are wanting to cruise further afield entry forms for the Three Rivers Rally (Gisborne), Eastern Bay of Plenty Rally (Whakatane) and Lake Taupo Rally can be obtained from secretary Raewyn. Closing dates for entries to these Rallies are 31 Jan, 25 Jan and 23 Feb respectively. Also, there is the Charity car show on the 3 February on the grounds of Inglewood High School and on 16 and 17 February the Vintage Hay Day being held on Honnor’s farm, Waitara road. Safe travels wherever you roam!
Jim Logan Editor
Alvis Club visit to Clubrooms—October2018 2
I would like to welcome a new member, Keith Bland from New Plymouth. Keith has two Citroens and two 1950’s BS! motorcycle’s that he has owned for about forty years. I hope you enjoy many club events with us in the future. Sadly I must report the passing of one of our Branch members, June Oliver. June enjoyed competing with Rodney on our Maunga Moana Rallies often with successful results. Her funeral was well attended by club members and our condolences go out to Steven and Veronica, Greg and Jane along with the rest of the families. I mentioned in the last newsletter that I had received a request for some cars for display at a local rest home, possibly later this month. If anyone can help please contact me. !lso don’t forget to bring something of interest for the Shiny Parts auction next month.
John Muter 24 Jan
27 Jan
Mid Week run starting from the children's playground carpark, Orlando St, Stratford at 1.30pm. Please bring your afternoon tea. A family friendly car rally organized by Max Rutherford and Tom Mazey starting from the clubrooms at 1.00pm. See details elsewhere in this mag.
21 Feb
Club night and a Shiny Parts auction, bring along your saleable parts and treasures for Bill to auction off.
24 Feb
The 46th Waitara Mini Vin Rally. Meet at the Waitara Town and Country Club at 1.30pm. The Rally will finish at Colin Johnston’s for afternoon tea and a chance to view his Museum and collections. NOTE: our clubrooms and spare parts will not be open.
17 Mar
Picnic run to Lakes Rotorangi and Rotokare, meet at Bath St Eltham at 11.00am, remember to bring your lunch! Club night with guest speaker to be confirmed. Mid Week Run from New Plymouth, details later. Clubrooms and Parts Shed will be open.
21 March 28 March 31 March
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THE DA COUPE COMES NORTH Last month I wrote of our drive from the bottom of the South Island to Waitara having taken delivery of Colin J’s new addition to his trusty D! Dodge stable. !lthough the coupe performed faultlessly, I can’t say the same about one of the drivers. As we hit the coast south of Kaikoura, an improvement in the weather meant we had better opportunities for what turned out to be numerous photo stops, especially north of the town of Kaikoura. With the major remedial work to both rail and road route through this area still ongoing the drive along the coast line north of Kaikoura was a continual stop start process, with traffic control folk with their ‘lollipops’ out in force. One was no sooner out of one section of one-way road and you were into the next. The delays gave us the opportunity to comprehend the devastation and damage the result of the 2016 Kaikoura shake, and many photo opportunities. While at the wheel I made the comment I would like to get a photo of the Coupe with the evidence of the lift in the seabed that had occurred in the background. The sun was out, a break in on-coming traffic, and I crossed over the road to stop on what I thought was a solid stone and broken shell surface, but, no more than one car length and I felt the D! ‘sink’, and sink it did. As luck would have it where I had driven off the road, alongside was parked a ute, obviously on a hard surface, the owner of which was just returning with his kayak, and his daily quota of six crayfish. A rope to the rescue and the ute returned the DA to terra-firma with very little effort. Back on the road and our journey north continued without any further drama. 4
To see the remedial work in the ‘raw’, to landscape, highway, and rail, taking place along the coast north of Kaikoura then made one appreciate the scale, hence the cost of this ‘landscape’ restoration.
Rob T
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Land Speed Record Attempts an early history cont’d In any event the Sydney team in 1929 came to the conclusion that there was not a suitable track to run at the projected speeds in Australia and their only options were either Daytona Beach in Florida where Segraves and Campbell had set records, or 90 mile beach in NZ. At the beach site the men built a special workshop in the sand hills and the concrete foundations were still there in 1974 when the late Eoin Young visited the site for information for an article he wrote on the record attempts. On returning to Sydney and using a borrowed seaplane engine, Smith and Harkness began building a better car, the (Sir) Fred. H. Stewart 'Enterprise', named in honour of their main sponsor. Delays occurred when they disagreed about its design and Harkness became ill. Their differences came to a head in New Zealand in December 1931, when Smith altered the car. Harkness began legal proceedings in Sydney, but later settled out of court. Another rift that came between the men started when Harkness wanted an alteration to the ignition system so that the spark could be altered during a run. This system was installed by a Mr. Nadal who first wanted to check the compression of each cylinder, but Smith refused, saying the British Air Ministry who supplied the engine wanted the compression ratios kept secret or the permit to use the engine might be withdrawn. He further suggested that if Nadal approached the engine he might throw him and the compression tester into the surf. The engine [borrowed from the British Air Force under a bond of £1000] was a W12 Napier Lion of about 1450 cubic inches first built in 1917. In 1929 eight Napier Lion engines were built with superchargers rated at 1350 hp with one of these powering the Enterprise. Finance for the project was raised through a Sydney based sponsorship cartel which included Vacuum Oil, “The Sun” picture bureau, C. C. Wakefield and Co and “The Sunday Times” a newspaper that Smith penned for. The funds required would have been considerable, especially during a global depression and to some extent a tribute to both Don Harkness and Norman Smiths credentials in addition to a world land speed record as a possible outcome. They had to beat 245 mph set by Malcom Campbell in 1931 who in turn had upped Sir Henry Segraves 1929 record of 231 mph. At the time the land speed record was attractive and of interest to the fast growing motor industry so that would have helped gain sponsorship. Continued page 7 6
Continued from page 6 Long distance aviators like Kingsford -Smith had also captured the imagination of the public and thus attracted sponsorship for their efforts. On 26 January 1932, on a wet and bumpy surface, 'Wizard' Smith set an official World speed record for ten miles of 164.084 miles (264.06 km) per hour. Although intending to challenge Sir Malcolm Campbell's one mile and five as well, months of inactivity followed, amid adverse publicity. He had broken a record but it was not the outright land speed record for one mile that he was after. After all the failures and disappointments Smith returned to Sydney where he sued Smith's Weekly for alleging that he was a coward. Although he was awarded damages, his public standing remained low and, with insufficient funds, he abandoned plans for any further challenges. Later he was accused by the Sydney papers who said he “was afraid to go for the one mile record.� The large crowds of locals that had attended the early attempts slowly diminished as more attempts failed and the locals were getting very agitated about losing their access to the 20 odd miles of the beach which was controlled by police during runs. There had been significant input to the attempts by the Auckland Automobile Racing Club who did the timing and organised such things as the closing of the beach for the attempts. When Smith was back in Sydney Harkness contacted the club to say he would return and attempt the record himself. Also CWF Hamilton, father of the NZ invented jet boat was suggested as a possible driver but the club turned down both these suggestions and declared the attempt closed. The car was shipped back to Sydney and dismantled. The engine was purchased from The British Air Ministry and fitted in a speed boat. The NZ Post Office had laid telephone cables along the course to take the signal from the special photoelectric timing equipment that had been imported from England. There were some delays while faults in the cable were found which proved to be the result of enterprising locals cutting the cable while they removed the lead sheathing, probably to be melted down for fishing sinkers. Another timing problem was sea-gulls flying overhead and their shadows triggering the equipment. The car was not originally fitted with the forward extended radiator shown in some photographs but missing in the picture taken during an earlier test run, so they must have had overheating problems. Continued page 10 7
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Closing date for MARCH Topical Torque, 10 February. Please forward articles to the Editor, Jim Logan 76C South Road N P 4310 -or email to logandj49@gmail.com
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This magazine is also available by e-mail as a PDF file. If you would prefer to receive a copy this way please contact the Editor. Pictures are usually in colour. Views and opinions expressed in Topical Torque are those of contributors and not necessarily those of the Taranaki Branch of the V C C of N Z, the Branch Executive or the Editor. Clubrooms: 1040 Mountain Road - SH 3A Inglewood.
Coming Events FEBRUARY Local Events 3 Inglewood Charity Car Show 7 Committee meets at 7.30pm 21 Club Night 24 Mini Vin/ Waitara Town and Country Club 1.30pm (Clubrooms will not be open this Sunday) Other Branch Events 2 E B o Plenty East Coast Rally 3 Taupo Open Day anf B B Q 3 Manawatu Veteran Rally 8-10 Gisborne Three Rivers Rally 9 Auckland Veteran Run 10 Wellington British and European Car Day 15-17 Hawkes Bay Art Deco Rally 23 Wellsford/Warkworth Swap Meet
MARCH Local Events 7 Committee meets at 7.30pm 17 Rotorangi Picnic Run 21 Club Night + 28 Midweek Run N P 31 Clubrooms & Parts Shed Open, 2pm Other Branch Events 2 Manawatu Ruahine Ramble 9 Taupo Lake Taupo Rally 10 Wairarapa Rex Porter Memorial Rally 11 Welsford/W’worth !re We There Yet Rally 10 Auckland Vintage Muster 17 Waikato Vintage Venture
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Continued from page 7
The additional cooling was added by Smith and it was this that caused another rift between the two men. A system of ice tanks had been tried but failed and the use of methyl chloride and glycol had been abandoned due to the high cost involved and the decreasing budget they were working on.
The Enterprise with the big ugly extra radiator on the front which caused an argument between the men
Although both Smith and Harkness were quoted earlier in Sydney papers as saying Ninety Mile Beach was the “best venue in the world for record attempts” there were several problems that they encountered. The worst was the un-seasonal weather which produced high winds and rain even in January of that year. Then there were the flocks of seagulls that insisted on using the same stretch of sand but the worst was the native shellfish that lived in the sand. These were Toheroa which poked their razor -sharp shells up through the sand and badly cut the car’s special 37” Dunlop tires. Another problem with this beach is that wet patches can come and go at different places and times and can be hard to spot from any reasonable distance. Several people have been killed on the beach over the years, especially when their motorbikes have hit these ‘quicksand’ like patches. Continued page 11
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The photographs from the area during the event show some strange sights. Note Wizards wife Mrs. Harriet Smith (in the centre) on the 1930 trip wearing fur stoles and gloves on a beach! Though mid-summer it looked like it might have been a cold day. (See photo below) For leisure he enjoyed golf and fishing. A persevering man, his short and plain physical appearance did little to offset his enigmatic, introspective personality and, paying insufficient attention to publicity, he was denied the rewards which his skills and achievements should have brought. Smith died at Kogarah on the first of October 1958.
Below is Kingsford Smith’s plane that flew from 90 mile beach to !ustralia with mail and some of the men from the record attempts. Kingsford Smith is at far left. I love that ‘roly poly’ policeman!!
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The modern LSR era has once again revived interest in high speeds with three vehicles going for 1000 mph. The British Bloodhound project managed by the current record holder team led by Richard Noble with Andy Green as driver, on paper has the best chance. They are using a 750hp Cosworth CA, 2010 F1 engine just to drive the fuel pump for the rocket engine! (Since writing the above the Cosworth was dropped and replaced with a V8 Jaguar motor as the 450hp of the Cosworth was not enough –Editor Max) The “North !merican Eagle” effort from the Seattle area has taken a novel approach. They purchased a damaged F-104 Starfighter for $35,000 reasoning that if it can do 2000 mph in the air then it should be able to go half that speed on land. Basically they took the wings off and built a new under carriage all work done by amateurs. It’s proceeded slowly but they have exceeded 400 mph in tests before encountering handling problems. The last contender is a flamboyant hot-rodder from Perth, Roscoe McGlashan with previous record breaking experience who is using a New Zealand designed and built rocket motor which consumes fuel at more than a ton per 10 seconds. Mathematically it will accelerate from 0-1000 mph in 20 seconds but what happens in the interim is the big question. A track in Western Qld looks likely to be the venue but the car is being built on a small budget and considerable optimism in true Aussie battler style. It should be interesting and someone in this group is likely to at least beat the existing record which is 2 mph over the speed of sound though this is now a very high bar to exceed.
This is Norman ‘Wizard’ Smith from Sydney at speed in the Enterprise on ‘ninety mile beach’ in 1932.
This article is based on research by Trevor Benton with some content taken from the writings of the late Eoin Young and the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Also from the Powerhouse Museum Collection in Sydney. I thank Trevor for his huge input into this article. Editor Max
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Branch Events Sunday 27th of January. ! family friendly car rally so easy that you can’t get lost! Get out your vintage or your everyday car and join us at the Club Rooms for a 1pm. No numbers needed. No checks of any sort. No timed sections. Tar seal all the way. Really simple instructions, so it is intended as just a nice afternoon run in the country. However, if you wish to be competitive there will be a separate question sheet, so that’s where the children in the back can help out. There will be prizes for the most number of correct answers. As the rally is not timed you can stop and think about the questions as they come up. Tea and coffee will be available at the finish back at the club rooms after ap proximately 2 hours. We look forward to a good turn-out of members. Max Rutherford and Tom Mazey.
46th WAITARA MINI -VIN TOUR SUNDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2019 Assemble at the Waitara Town and Country Club car park West Quay Waitara. First car away at 1:30pm Rally in true Mini-Vin tradition and enjoy the get-together. Rally finishes at Colin and !lexander Johnston’s residence at 63 Broadway, Waitara for afternoon tea (please help out with a plate) Prizes and trophy will be presented and the winners name will be added to the Honours Board at the club rooms. You are invited to come on your motorbike or motor in your Veteran, Vintage PVV, Post 60, Modern or anything you like. JUST BE THERE TO HAVE A GOOD TIME For any further information contact Colin Johnston on 06 7546216 or 021 1316699 13
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For Sale / Swap Chair
Wolsely Mk2
ChairWayco 2 ton hydraulic engine
1300 only 35000 miles from new in excelent condition ,twin carb model, must be sold, offers Call Bill 06 7584244 or 022 6014245
I have a lifter for sale in good order $175 Phone 06 7550950 or 0211008419
Austin Big 7 1938
Chair1936 Austin 6
Current WOF and Rego, drive away, Original upholstery—$5,000 Ph Darren at Corson Tyres, 7586100 Office hours
Original paint and upholstery. Low milage and runs well This would be a great rally car Ph John 06 7515554
Bikes 1951 Matchless 500cc Twin G9
1952 AJS 500cc Twin Model 30
Bike fairly complete apart from rear chain-guard and no Exhaust System. Not running. Reground crankshaft and new rings. New armature.
A complete bike in barn-find condition. All correct but would need full restoration. Early AJS Twins are quite rare in NZ.
1954 Matchless 500cc Twin G9 A complete bike but exhaust would need work and new wiring would be required. New armature
These bike are located in Auckland. For initial enquires please phone Bruce Davidson on 06 758 6154 or 0274 834 800 New Plymouth. Photo’s are available.
Wanted to Buy 1937 1/2 ton Chev Truck Or rolling chassis Phone Pat: 06 754 6096
Austin A40 Devon 1952 Prefer original and going condition also any parts for 1955 A40 pickup: bench seat, dash board parts (speedo & controls) steering wheel centre (horn and trafficator lever), shock absorbers, SU carburettor (for 1500/1600cc motor), front bumper etc Phone John Hood 06 7587834 NP (mem)
The Taranaki Branch of the Vintage Car Club does not take any responsibility for claims made in relation to condition or performance of items appearing in these classified pages.
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WANTED For our clubrooms. A lockable display cabinet for some of our more valuable books donated to the library. If anyone has a unit that might fit the bill please contact any member of the committee.
To help with our research of early motor cycle racing in NZ we would like any copies of “New Zealand Motor cycle Journal. They were published in the early 1920’s We beg, borrow or copy!! Max Rutherford 06 7589007
VINTAGE HAY DAY HONORS FARM WAITARA ROAD 16 & 17 FEBRUARY All vehicles welcome. Security will be on site for vehicles left overnight for display.
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Neil Carter Phone 06 273 4366
Normanby, Taranaki
The Mad Irish
KEY MAN Email: desyo@xtra.co.nz
E reservations@autolodge.co.nz
Accommodation • Restaurant • Celebrations • Anniversaries • Birthdays • Reunions
Call Ian, a member of VCC Taranaki Branch
Phone 06 753 3691 or 021 0279 7395