WORLD SPEED RECORDS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 83, 2 January 1930, Page 10

WORLD SPEED RECORDS

ATTEMPT IN NEW ZEALAND NORMAN SMITH'" ARRIVES WITH NEW CAR Dominion Special Service. Auckland, December 8L With a huge new racing car in which he will attempt to lower world speed records on Ninety Mlle Beach, Mr. Norman Smith, the Australian racing motorist, arrived at Auckland by the Maunganui to-day. He has great confidence in his car, a long, golden machine, the graceful lines, of which alone seem Indicative of power and speed. The car has been christened “Anzac.” Built by a well-known Sydney firm of motor and aero engineers, the car has a Cadillac chassis and 500 horsepower Rolls Royce aeroplane engine. It was only completed about six weeks ago. Mr. Smith said that in tests It has attained a speed of 121 miles an hour on an open road, and has accelerated up to 142 miles an hour in 1300 yards. It has also touched the speed of 117 miles an hour In second gear on a straight course. The Records to be Attacked. “With the engine full out, I hope to touch 170 miles an hour," he said. “The records which I hope to break are the world ten miles record, at present held by the French motorist Marchand, who established the figure of 133.54 miles an hour in a Voisin, and the Australian and New Zealand one mile record. I think there are excellent prospects of success. For the attempt on the ten miles record I shall need a clear run of 13 miles (one mile for a flying start and two miles in which to stop”). - Mr. Smith will probably make his attempt on the records toward the middle of this month. He is not yet certain whether he will make it at Ninety Mile Beach or Muriwai. Attempt on Segrave’s Record Possible. If he is successful and finds beaches suitable for high speed motoring, a car with a 2000 horse-power engine will probably be built for him in Australia. In this he will attempt to break Sir Henry Segrave’s record of 231.36 miles an hour over one mile, and Malcolm Campbell’s world record for five miles. » Mr. Smith has brought a special electric timing apparatus, exact to a hundredth part of a second, which will be used to time the attempts on the records. Mr. Smith is. far from being unknown in New Zealand. His record stamps him as Australia’s foremost racing motorist and he has twice established speed records for the run from Auckland to Wellington. NINETY-MILE BEACH A PROMISING COURSE “The Northlander” (Kaitaia) states that Colonel Allen Bell and Mr. L. Keene, of Te Pakl, recently made a detailed and careful inspection of the Ninety-Mile Beach from Ahipara to Scott’s Point, on behalf of the Kaitaia Aero Club, to locate the best portion of the beach for Mr. Norman Smith to make the attempt to raise his dne-mile record, then attack the world’s ten-mile speed record, and later on Sir Henry Segrave’s record of 231.36 miles per hour.

That portion of the beach lying between Ahipara and Hukatere was soon ruled out owing to its very pronounced curve, and the fact that owing to the wet season there were numerous creeks emptying into the sand.

Sixteen Miles Straight.

The course selected, that portion of the beach lying between Hukatere and the Mangonui Bluff, is ideal for the purpose. From Hukatere to Te Arai, a distance of 161 miles, it is almost dead straight, and from Te Arai to Mangonui Bluff, a distance of 14 miles, there is only a very slight curve to the westward which at dead low water will not appreciably affect the course. On the whole length of this splendid stretch of hard sandy beach the track is as level as the proverbial billiard table, absolutely free from watercourses or depressions of any kind. It is probably the world’s motor speed track, and, given good conditions, Mr. Smith should have no difficulty in adding to the laurels he has already gained in the motoring world in Australia.