"WIZARD" SMITH'S CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 16, 20 January 1931, Page 15

"WIZARD" SMITH'S CAR.

MAY STARTLE THE WORLD. CHASSIS COST £6000. AUSTRALIAN'S ATTEMPT ON • RECORD. % Completed by enthusiasts at a chassis cost of £C 00"0, an Austrulian-bmlt motor car will be sent from Sydney to New Zealand next month, and early in March may capture for Australia the world land speed record (says the Melbourne "Herald"). In price, size and design, it is a car ' to startle the world. The present record stands at 231.3 m.p.h., fo the credit of. the late Sir Henry Segravc, but Sir. Norman ("Wizard") Smith, of Sydney, is confident that he will increase the record to 300 m.p.h. His estimate is based on four factors: The British Air Ministry £8000 "Hush j Hush" Napier engine in his car will develop twice the power that was available to Segrave (000 li.p.) ; the Australian designed and built car will be lighter and yet have only S3 per cent of the wind resistance of Segravc's {

"Golden Arrow"; at Daytonu (U-S.A.) Segrave had only a ninu-milc stretch of beach, whereas on the Ninety-Mile Beach at Kaitaia, New Zealand, Smith will have a 30-mile run of smooth sand, 1000 feet wide, thus providing him with greater distances for accelerating and pulling , up. While Smith, as our most famous race driver, is most commonly associated with ' the record attempt, lie gives the niivst credit to a Sydney sportsman, Mr. Fred If. Stewart, who, by financing the. build- \ ing of the car, h<is enabled the record attempt to be made, and to Mr. Don Harkness a Sydney racing driver and a brilliant automobile engineer, who has been responsible for the design and construction of the car. "This responsibility has entailed months of patient work, much of it experimental, and has called for the production of intricate diagrams calculating to decimal points all factors, such as stress, wind resistance, and lifting I efforts, which the "'Fred H. Stewart" car will have to overcome to achieve success. In Britain important scientists and laboratories did this work for the British cars that Have attacked the record.

Now the Australian car is almost complete in a workshop, on fhe historic Parramatta Koad, and the construction alone is a triumph for. Australia-r-a nation that does not build motor cars. Throughout it is of Australian and British materials only, and, excluding the engine and the special wheels and tyres, it ie Australian-made in every part. When Segrave established the world record in his British-built car the British experts claimed that the feat was the most valuable world advertisement Britain received for the year. If Smith succeeds, therefore, Australia should receive-one of the biggest boosts it yet has had.

Not many motorists would care to drive a car in which the gear speeds are 100, 200 and 300 m.p.h., but those are the speeds for the "Fred H. Stewart." Obviously no normal clutch could transmit power at such speeds, so Harkuess has fitted the car with a special clutch in which dogs positively lock the plates after each gear change. Other record car* have suffered from loss of power through clutch elips.

Next the car lias had to be built so that it will keep, on the ground and on a straight course when travelling at maximum speed. The special chape.of the tipper surface and the flat underneath has been provided to guarantee the first factor, while giant twin stabilator fins are provided to keep the car straight. In addition, special springing, giving the axles both fore and aft and

up and down movement, though very slight, is incorporated for the same purpose, also Independent steering to each front wheel.

The special body measures only 19 inchee wide, while it is 2(5 feet long overall, yet only 3ft 2in high. Inside this 70001b armour-plated streamline shape Smith will sit between the twin shafts transmitting the power from the gear-box to the back axle. At hie side the giant road wheels, pumped' to 1401b a square inch, yet with rubber treads only l-64th of an inch thick—a precaution against centrifugal bursting—will spin at 3100 revolutions a minute as his car flashes away at 147 yards a second. To protect Smith against possible bursting of a radiator —a failure, that resulted in Segrave being badly scalded —Harlcness has designed a special radiator, of much smaller size than that carried by the Golden Arrow, yet carrying the same capacity of water. Few can imagine what a speed of 300 m.p.h. is. A good' comparison would be a journey from Flinders Street to Elsternwiek in one minute. Yet on Smith's attempt 3:1 tons of man and machine will have to move at that rate to win success, and, success achieved, it will take about nine miles for the car to stop after the engine has stopped. Though brakes are fitted to the car, it is almost certain they will not be used, for to , brake at 300 miles an hour could mean only the wrecking of the car.

New York was the first State to require motor vehicle licenses. The practice was first started in 1901, and £191 was collected for the first year. In 1929 the total motor vehicle registration of New York State was 2,203.250 units, representing £7,658,662.