NEW CAR FROM OLD

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31226, 25 November 1966, Page 15

NEW CAR FROM OLD

(By Our Speedway Reporter' When something special arrives in the pits at the Templeton Speedway it is always fairly obvious by the crowds of competitors and mechanics clustering around and firing questions at the owner.

Several new machines have made their first public appear-1 ances recently and one of the: biggest gatherings so far this' season greeted the arrival of 22-year-old Edwin Murray’s beautifully-finished midget racing car. . It is a home-built special in which he hopes to become a serious contender for this, season's South Island cham-1 pionship. Since its first race the car s progress has been rather erratic It has shown tremendous I speed but its handling has not been particularly imnressive When Murray has solved this problem the car should prove extremelv competitive. It arrived with little publicity for it was generallv thought that Murray had merelv re-built the old mode which had served him so well since he entered the big midget class two seasons ago Although his original intention may have been to make evtensive modifications to the nid car —a machine good enough to hold the eight-lap record at Templeton for a period last season—the finished Product bears no £ semblance to it Only the chassis and the rear wheels

of the old car are incorporated in the new. Unfortunately, to do so the old car had to be wrecked and a spectacular midget has been lost The new car is the result of eight months of painstaking labour in Murray’s backyard workshop. A panelbeater, he has hand-built the car almost by himself. The result is an engineering masterpiece. Finished in bright red with liberal amounts of chromium plating, the car has torsion bar suspension at the rear and disc brakes, hand operated, on all four wheels. It is powered by a sixcylinder Ford Zephyr engine, fitted with a special Raymond May-B.R.M. developed head and producing more than 150 brake horsepower. Prepared for racing by B. Rossiter, it is fitted with twin S.U. racing carburettors.

Murray has no intention of competing in this season's New Zealand championships lat Auckland. “I can’t afford it this year but eventually 1 hone to take part,” he said. However, he is keen to make a bid for the South Island championship, being decided on points over the season. This is Murray’s fifth season of speedway competition

and he should be able to bring out the best in his new speedcar. For two years he was a top three-quarter midget car driver. He then graduated to the full-sized midgets and had considerable success in an old midget which had plenty of speed but handled erratically. Towards the end of last season he realised he “had to do something” if he was to remain fully competitive. And so rather than spend £2O on his old car he decided to start from scratch and build a new one.

After seeing the new car, no-one could question the wisdom of his decision.