TO BREAK RECORDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 859, 31 December 1929, Page 9

TO BREAK RECORDS

“WIZARD” SMITH ARRIVES WITH NEW CAR INSPECTION OF BEACHES ‘•lf we have any success at all on our present mission, and find your beaches suitable, we are going back to Australia to build a car powered with a 2.000 horsepower engine, with which I intend to make an attack on Sir Henry Segrave’s world’s record over one mile/’ r pHESK were tho remarks of tho famed Australian raring motorist, "Wizard” Smith, who arrived in Auck--1 land on the Maunganui this morning with his new car “Anrac,” with which ho will endeavour to shatter both the Australian and New Zealand one mile and the world’s 10-mile records, on either Muriwai or the Ninety-Mile Beach, some time next month. The party with the car comprises Mr. and Mrs. ‘‘Wizard” Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Smith. Mr. Don Harkness (engineer). Mr. J. H. Mostyn, ex-Uord Mayor of Sydney and manager of the party, and Dr. and Mrs. King, of Sydney. Mr. Smith, who is well known to beach°Hifd will then proceed immedia* eiy to he Ninety Mile Beach in order »** decide w inen would bo tne more suitable of the two. “For the attempt on the mile record I will want a good stretch of at at least four miles, that is to give mo two. miles to hit top speed and an easy mile to stop. For the 10-milo “scoot” I would like about a 14-mile stretch,” continued Mr. Smith. It is expected that the attempts will take place about the middle of next month, although, as yet, no definite date has been fixed. The car will bo seen racing, however, at the meetings to be held at Muriwai and Kaitaia. NOT A SHEER “STUNT” “You could hardly say it is a sheer ‘stunt/ for, by attaining high speeds in the breaking of records we learn

much which is of invaluable assistance to us in the building and design-

ing of cars, especially from the point of view of the steering gear,” said Mr. Smith. “Then there is one thing that can put Australia and New Zealand both definitely on the map and that is to ‘crack’ big times which will give the racing motorists abroad something to think about. By establishing a 10 miles record it would certainly make the Dominion quite famous for its racing beaches and indirectly that is the sort of thing that seems to attract people. I suppose it all comes down to this so-called modern craze for speed which we hear so much about,” mused Mr. Smith. "Anzac” appeared very trim when viewed on the after deck of the Maunganui this morning. It has an overall length of 20ft, with only a few inches' ground clearance. At the back is a large fin like the rudder of an airplane, which is for the purpose of giving directional stability, while the radiator cover is specially designed to lessen wind resistance. It is a Cadillac chassis and the mechanical spearhead is an Egle 8 Rolls Royce 12-cylinder engine, fitted with four magnetos, four carburettors and 24 spark plugs. There are three forward gears. Mr. Don Ilarkness, who assisted Mr. Smith in building and designing the car, is one of Australia's most noted automobile engineers, having designed and manufactured the first aero engine in the Commonwealth. As w r ell as an airplane pilot he is well known as a speed and competition driver. SPEED AT 170 M.P.H.

“We are reckoning on this car doing about 170 miles an hour. As for these records, well, in the tests which we put ‘Anzac’ through before leaving, we hit 142 miles an hour in l, yards and managed 117 miles in second gear. M. Marehand holds the 10-mile record, which is 133.51 m. and he did it in a Voisincar at Montlhery. There should not be a great deal of trouble in lowering that time, which is the harder of the two already set up.” Mr. Smith is rather secretive concerning the car which he intends to build on his return to Sydney, and he felt it sufficient to say that its constructioif would be under the care of his friend, Mr. Don Harkness, and would be powered with a 2,000 horsepower engine. The intention of building this car is to make an attempt on Sir Henry Segrave’s one-mile record of 231.3 miles an hour, and on Malcolm Campbell’s five-mile world record. Both attempts will be made on New Zealand beaches. The party has also brought with it a special electric timing apparatus, which is exact to the hundredth part of a second. This will be used next month while watches will also be used to check off. There is little room to doubt the capabilities of "Wizard” Smith, who is the most noted racing motorist in Australia. He holds 53 records and has won more Royal Auto Club contests than any other two drivers in Australia. He has recently finished the year in Australia by winning tho 100 guineas Wakefield Trophy, while to come closer home, he has twice broken the Auckland-Wellington speed record and the record from Christchurch to Dunedin. „