CAR RELIABILITY TRIAL ENDS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27408, 22 July 1954, Page 4

CAR RELIABILITY TRIAL ENDS

9600-Mile Journey j Round Australia , FORD V 8 PROVISIONAL 1 WINNER ; SYDNEY, July 21. More than 200,000 persons welcomed the Redex reliability trial crews as; they drove their mud-spattered carsj through Sydney to the Show Grounds last night at the end of their 9600mile journey round Australia. Although the result will not be known until cars are checked and any protests dealt with, jJrovwional winner of the first prize is Jack Murray, of Sydney, driving a 1948 Ford VB. Murray and his co-driver Bill Murray, of Sydney, probably will win prizes worth £lO,OOO. They will share a first prize of £2OOO cash and a prefabricated house worth £l3OO, but conditional prizes and commercial endorsements will bring their reward to at least £lO,OOO.

The Murrays completed the course without loss of points, and were mobbed by crowds which broke through the barriers at the Show Ground.

Jack Murray told the crowd that the only damage to his car was two broken shock-absorber links, one on the front and one on the back. The damage had occurred on the Cloncurry-Mount Isa stretch. Bill Murray said the rim across the Australian Alps on Tuesday was the most difficult run, apart from the Clon-curry-Mount Isa section. Light snow was falling as the leading cars sped along the roads, and several cars skidded in the slush. Drivers said they had to melt icecovered windscreens with hot tea. N.Z. Driver’s Criticism Bill Culver, of Thames, who withdrew his Jaguar at Cloncurry after an accident, complained that the Australian Sporting Car Club had made no arrangements for himself and his team, although his club, the New Zealand Car Club, had fully catered for members of the Australian club when they visited New Zealand recently. He said. “This trial cost me £l5OO. For all that I can only say that it stinks.

“No-one chose to meet us when we arrived, &nd I think our treatment in Australia has been very shabby, to say the least. We have been subject to rudeness and even insults by officials, and to show just how bad this treatment has been, by wife and I had to pay to get inside the. Show Ground tonight. My wife had to pay to get inside the Show Ground to see me leave three weeks ago. “I was asked by club members back home to give them a report when I returned of what the trial was like. The report will* be, to say the very least, unfavourable.”