Beating the Other Speedsters

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6748, 5 January 1932, Page 5

Beating the Other Speedsters

SELECTING THE DESIGNER. Alongside Lonsdown Bridge, the oldest stone bridge in Sydney, in the heat of a quiet Sunday afternoon, tw T o men stood mending a puncture, and as they worked they talked speed and records. It was on that sweltering Sunday, over two years ago, while cars went by in endless procession and left the men in a cloud of dust that the idea of “Wizard” Smith’s attempt on the land speed record was born. One of the men was Australia’s crack racing driver, the other Air. J. 11. Alostyn, manager of the speed party to Ninety-Mile Beach to prepare tho Fred H. Stewart Enterprise to travel a mile in twelve seconds. Two years have gone by, two years of concentrated work, of negotiations, of tcst3 and trials, and now the great car is ready. And when “Wizard Smith and his party come back from tho North, whether they creak the record or not, close on £20,000 will have been spent on a great Australian venture. The day following that roadside chat, “Wizard” Smith and his friend, Jack Mostvn, launched their scheme. On the advice of a big Sydney business man, tho partners decided to build a car capable of touching about 150 miles an hour. It was Howard Nattrass, himself a well-known New Zealand racing driver, winner of trophies on Aluriwai Beach, who suggested that Smith’s first big racing car be tried on Ninety-Alile Beach. So it was agreed. An engine was decided on. Then came tho problem of designing and building tho car. It could not be decided who would bo tho best man ior the job. Smith and Alostyn took a gamble. Tho names of five leading Sydney engineers wero written on bits of paper and placed in a hat. “Wizard” Smith, drew from the bat a slip with the name of Don Harkncss. So Harlines.s, ono of the greatest engineers in Australia to-day, was offered and accepted tho job of building Smith’s first car, the Anzac. ,