“Dripfeed” NEWSLETTER OF THE BANKS PENINSULA BRANCH OF THE VINTAGE CAR CLUB OF New Zealand (INC) VOLUME 43, No 4 May 2020. Editor: Michael Williams 10 Selwyn Parade Lyttelton Ph 328 8043, email mimiandmichael@yahoo.co.nz
Chairman: Secretary:
Club Officers: Craig Keenan 322 1006 Ron Hasell 942 1105
Branch Address: 27 Showgate Ave, ChCh 8042 E-mail: bankspeninsula@vcc.org.nz Noggin & Natter: 2nd Thursday of the Month usually, but not this month.
Noggin 7.30 pm at the Papanui RSA. Upham Room – enter either from 55 Bellvue Ave or the first entrance on the left on Harewood Road (Papanui / Main North Road) We look forward to seeing you there. Supper is provided. Just not sure what month it will be!
From the Editor: With the change in regulations it seems as if we can think about a tentative beginning to getting back in our cars and driving somewhere, and even having an AGM, as it can probably be assumed that there won’t be more than 100 people at any future event. However, the committee hasn’t met since the lockdown, so nothing is organised. So this is very much an interim Dripfeed until we get organised. Craig Cowie used to call his Riley Brooklands replica (now owned by Geoff Edwards), a genuine replica, and this is a genuine replica Dripfeed. Most of you will be aware that Mollie Anderson died recently. Mollie was of course married to VCC founding member Andrew and was an early member of the VCC. She edited the first magazine, known as “The Guff Sheet”, and was the editor of that splendid book “50 Years”, a history of the VCC in New Zealand, published in 1996. Mollie and Andrew were a formidable team, and together they played a significant role in the establishment and consolidation of the VCC in this country. The branch extends its sympathy to Andrew and to Mollie’s extended family. Our sympathy also goes to Avon Hyde and his family over the recent death of his wife Marg. Marg was a loyal and cheerful supporter for Avon during his wide and varied racing career, and she will be greatly missed.
The Mclachlan Trophy is looking for a new home, so if you know of a suitable Veteran car that has travelled lots of miles during the motoring season, including to and from events, and the Mt Cook rally, get in touch with Dave Inwood at 03 3274156. There is an event in the distant future that I’ve been asked to mention. The Ford Model A Club is having a National rally in Gisborne, 28th March – 4th April, which is Easter, 2021. Interested? Get in touch at gisbornemodelafordrally@gmail.com. Model A owners will be distressed to know that their Winter Rally, known by others as Irishman, has been cancelled. I’ve filled in some time recently by looking through the old Dripfeeds, particularly from the late 1980s. In 1988 Bruce Pidgeon won the Pomeroy trophy in his Bugatti 37A, with Don Broome in his Lotus 23B replica winning class B. I wonder what they used for hoods? George Henry won the Ashley Forest hillclimb, with a time of 51.19, on his BSA MX, half a second ahead of Barry Gurdler on the same machine. Warner Mauger had a time of 57 seconds in the Stanton Special, but was beaten by son Phil in the supercharged Austin 7, who had a time of 56.7. Is the A7 still in the Mauger garage? And most importantly of all, in June 1988, Garry Moore was seen in town looking for a suit. I’m sure it still fits him. Mark and Tracey Barrett have bought yet another Lotus, the blue 23B replica owned by Rob CopeWilliams. They now own three of Colin Chapman’s finest, and now that they have two 23B replicas, can finally see who really is the fastest. If one Lotus is Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious, I wonder what three should be? Masochism? In last month’s Dripfeed, I suggested that members might like to send in an article about a favourite car, and there has been a positive response, as you will see below. I had a choice of articles I could put in, but in a spirit of kindness and tolerant understanding, which we have recently been encouraged to show, I decided to include John McDonald’s Austin 7 article.
My First Vintage Car 1931 Austin Seven I never met Mrs Alice Craven, my only association with her being my later ownership of her by then barely mobile and somewhat decrepit 1932 Austin 7 utility in 1970. The original ownership papers show she resided at 358 Armagh St, that the Austin was a “Trade Motor”, had seating for 2 persons, was intended for the conveyance of Goods, the weight carrying capacity was 5 cwt, and the tyres were, of course, pneumatic. I purchased this device from a chap (who I suspect was doing a bit of unlicensed trading as his name never appeared on the papers) around 1970. Keen to make a bob he had recently purchased it, quickly painted it, then driven it (perhaps not so quickly) from Duvauchelle to Christchurch. Quite an achievement for a new Austin Seven, let alone this very second-hand example. I was led to believe the Austin had been initially purchased for delivery of town milk from the Armagh St shop in Christchurch, confirmation being somewhat supported by a passage in the Press from 1937, that Mrs Craven had been fined 20 pounds for breaches of the Health Act, by (in part) “preparing milk for sale in the kitchen”. She appears to have had an earlier run of bad luck in 1929, being fined 2 pounds for “selling cigarettes on a Sunday”, and reading further (but having absolutely nothing at all to do with
this article) was the chap who was fined 20 shillings and costs for “throwing a missile, a plum stone” whilst driving and hitting his accuser (who was riding a bicycle) in the ear. Back to business. Just what had I purchased? Fifty years later and the jury is still out on that, the socalled experts at the time chortling that it was nothing but a butchered saloon. I thought (and still do) otherwise, that it arrived in NZ as a chassis and cowl, the body being built locally. That opinion is strengthened by the solid wooden dashboard, wooden front windscreen frame, and the unsupportive front seats rather than the factory buckets, all major differences that had been in situ for a considerable time. Gearbox was a 3 speed, the starter motor lived in the cab, and the wheelbase was “long” in Seven parlance, at 6 foot 9 inches. Local agent David Crozier was advertising light delivery vehicles in July 1932, with the 4-speed saloon arriving in November 1932. The Austin appears to have changed hands for the first time in July 1939, when Hutchinson Motors advertised it for sale as a “1931 Austin 7 Light Delivery, Closed cab, 75 Pounds”. And that’s pretty much it until I purchased it. By then the cab had been bodged with a flat roof, the driver’s door had been replaced by a single fixed tin sheet, with driver entry via the passenger door. Quite legal warrant wise at the time, provided the driver’s “door” had no glass to impede emergency exit! The tray and deck were more tin, the rear guards gone. Importantly for me, with starry eyed ideas of restoration and VCC membership, the original side and tailboard, along with the rear guards were included. Everything worked in a Sevenish manner, and all the instruments were there. The whole ensemble was finished in a bright red. Very bright. Somehow it had a warrant of fitness (probably obtained from Tai Tapu as it scuttled through from Duvauchelle) and was mobile. My application to join the Canterbury branch of the VCC was “vetted” by two club members who arrived to see the Austin in person. There was a problem you see, 50 years ago there was a strict cut- off date of 31 December 1931, and my car had been saddled with the misfortune of a January 1932 build, and a first registration in December 1932. I could certainly join the VCC, but only as an associate member, so entering events was out. That rankled somewhat, but was easily partly solved by buying another car, as you do, and joining the Volkswagen Owners Club, a pretty live-wire and not so pedantic group. Peter Fry at that stage was doing a sterling job of herding Austin owners towards some semblance of cohesion with the Vintage Austin Register, which has gone from strength to strength in the interim. What also exists is his (admittedly very welcoming) letter in my files, which consigned my application to that damn associate status. Two out of two.
Rather discouraged by now, the restoration impetus faded, and parental pressure strongly suggested – no – demanded, one car should go. There was little genuine response to the newspaper advertisements, aside from one Jake Cooper, who was interested in obtaining it for a museum he was setting up at Yaldhurst. The only problem was establishing what this mobile relic was worth. In fact there was a suggestion (and not from me) that it fall into the donated category. I finally sold it to the son of a local auctioneer whose name has bolted with the passage of time. Some years later an advertisement fitting its description and giving only an address caught my eye, and I called round at Mayfair Street with a view to repurchasing it. The large dog on the property wasn’t conducive enticement to entering and having recently married I wasn’t prepared to part with any appendages. I never returned; the timing just wasn’t right. I always suspected it ended up being cannibalised into twenty other Austin Sevens, and parts of it were still mobile. And then came lockdown, and with the ensuing month under house arrest, time to pursue projects time forgot. It was something of a shock to see the engine and chassis numbers included in an international website, along with a notation “2 seats, 1930”. So perhaps it really has been rebuilt into something sportier, and a far cry from its early years delivering milk for Mrs Craven. Text and Illustrations: John McDonald
*** John also followed up this article with some interesting press clippings that confirm, rather unsurprisingly, that Austin Seven owners should probably be regarded with the utmost suspicion!
*** Carrying on the theme of inspiration derived from Austin Sevens (I’m not really sure this is even a thing…), Jim Bennett has provided us with the story of his well known and much raced FURI Impulse.
The Impulse Story By Jim Bennett Denis Jenkinson’s Racing Car Pocketbook, which I have had since a teenager, has a car in it which caught my imagination. More so when I saw one during a visit to the Donnington Collection. Jenk’s book describes the Austin 750cc twin cam racing car as “like a Grand Prix Mercedes Benz in miniature”. The original three cars and two spare engines were built in the Austin motors toolroom for the 1936 season at a cost reported in excess of 300,000 pounds. Running on alcohol fuel these specially designed twin cam engines produced, for that time, an amazing 116 BHP at 7500 RPM – the maximum safe speed for the Austin Co’s dynamometer. In competition the engines were limited to 9000rpm. This little jewel of an engine was fitted into a small single-seater chassis. On tight circuits such as Crystal Palace, Donnington and the Shelsey Walsh and Prescott hill climb these cars were competitive, often winning against contemporary opposition of more than double the engine size. At Brooklands, among a number of records, they set the 750cc 10 mile record at 122 mph. The cars also competed successfully in Europe with many class wins at hill-climbs as well as racing at the Nurburgring winning the up to 1100cc class.
As only two cars remain, the possibility of my being able to obtain one seemed remote in the extreme. The next best option seemed to me to make a car which would look and perform like the original. An accurate replica was dismissed as everything on the originals was purpose made at great cost. Whilst I had some access to good engineering facilities such use is limited. A car using Austin 7 parts was not even considered as the ”Twin Cam” used few if any parts from these cars. Here in the South Island it is acceptable to race at classic events with a retrospective vehicle. That is, a car of older design, using old parts but being recently constructed. I would have preferred a late model water cooled motorcycle engine but the chances of acceptability by the classic fraternity was deemed remote. The decision was made to use Hillman Imp donor parts on the basis that the engine was a similar lightweight design. With the addition of a Shorrock supercharger, which I had squirreled away, it was hoped that similar power to the original would be obtained. The garage of a friend was raided for Imp spares whilst and advertisement in the local newspaper supplied the remainder. “No picking and choosing you take everything or nothing”. A rudimentary channel section chassis with tubular cross members and a tubular front axle were constructed by closely studying and scaling photos and articles of the original. The front axle is sprung with a transverse leaf spring whilst two quarter elliptic rear springs mount a De Dion tube rear axle. The Imp engine attaches rigidly to the chassis in front of the driver with a short drive-shaft from the clutch passing beneath the seat to a reversed, inverted Imp gearbox to provide a low seating position. A shaft alongside the engine drives a water-pump and the supercharger mounted behind the engine. This is prettied up somewhat by being hidden under a spare Imp cam cover. A by-product of this is that bystanders invariably think the engine is actually a twin cam.
The engine has been modified to Rally Imp specifications. That is, it has been converted to wet cylinder liners with slightly larger forged pistons raising the engine size to 998cc. All high strength bolts and studs are of higher quality material than original. The Imp Sport cylinder head has enlarged inlet valves and some gas flowing. Double valve springs and a billet camshaft are fitted. The block
and head clamp the gasket with the aid of metal “O” rings to keep compression in and water out. A stronger diaphragm clutch is mounted on a lightweight steel flywheel. An oil/water heat exchanger is used to keep both temperatures near the same. The body is mainly aluminum with a fiberglass nose and tail. Simple oil and water gauges are mounted each side of a large rev. counter, cut from a Fiat 850 instrument cluster. The dark green body is offset by MGB wire wheels fitted with tyres approved for historic racing. The result is a Hillman Imp special based on a 1930’s design with similar appearance, performance and handling to the Austin 750 Twin Cam. A weight of 400 KG and around 100hp provides rapid acceleration. Top speed is around 175 KPH. It recorded a standing ¼ mile time of 14.02 seconds in 2019. Raced since 1993 the performance of the car has exceeded expectations. It took several meetings to gain enough confidence to start chucking it around, but it is really quite easy to drive and is enormous fun. While only occasionally being a winner it generally runs with the quicker old-style front engined cars. For me the biggest buzz is sliding through a turn in close company with other competitors and seeing them on the limit – working their steering in an effort to stay ahead. Something you can’t see with moderns. The car is FURI design number 9 and is called Impulse. My wife says “like the nature of the constructor”.
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