History Auto racing 1894-1942

Bluto,

The Ralph Schenk car is one of my favorites- gotta love a Chevrolet-banger!

Any other progress shots (especially of the chassis/drivetrain)?

 

T-Head,

Would love to see better scans of the photos in the album you bought on ebay if that is possible!

 

I bought them for a friend and they need to get here and I need to talk with him after the CA races and concour before I can do that. I see what I can do.

 

Thanks T head.

 

Is the bottom one a 3 seater?

 

T-Head,
Thanks for posting those magazine articles, great reading.

 

From Lake Perkolilli, near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. (It still gets used on occasion).

J C Smith in the Buick;

 

Another Buick:

 

Ready, set ......

Buick and Ford;

 

The Lake Perkolilli time keepers - 1927:

 

The spectators - 1927:

 

Racing underway - Lake Perkolilli - 1927:

 

J C Smith poses with the Buick - 1927:

 

Lake Perkolilli in 1928:

 

First Chrysler crosses the line in The Chrysler Cup event, Lake Perkolilli - 1928:

 

The 2nd Chrysler approaches the finish - 1928:

 

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The top picture is the prototype Atlantic, probably photographed in England at about the time the car was shown at the London Motor Show in October 1936. Pretty sure the lower picture is one of the 1935 Tourist Trophy T57s, although probably taken later as the wings are more substantial than when they raced at Ards - it has some styling cues which seem to come from the Atlantic. Note also the non-matching tyres - whitewall spare of a very different pattern!

 

I you showed photos of a Simplex chain drive trans-diff a while back and thought you might be interested in see what a Thomas unit looks like.

This is the same type of unit that was used from 1904-1912 in their four and six cylinder cars. This same trans-diff was in the Vanderbilt car and other early racers and also in the Ny to Paris car. In the NY to Paris car they pulled this out of the car in the middle of Siberia as the ring gear had stripped some teeth. Just getting one of these out of the car is an ordeal and I was thinking about this as we removed this one from the car yesterday. It takes two days of disassembly and rigging to get one of these out of the car with modern equipment

They had to do this in the middle of nowhere with only the tools they had with them and no jacks or chains falls like we used. This assembly is 18" wide x 38" long and it must weigh 400lbs.

Schuster dissembled it and took out the ring gear and softened it in a wood fire. He then drilled and taped holes in a row where the teeth used to be and drilled and tapped holes with a hand drill !!! put in bolts or screws and then filed them to the shape of a gear tooth.

They then reassembled it put it in the car and beat it to Paris, truly unbelievable, the guy was an Iron Man.

I will post more photos when we get the cover off so you can see what it looks like.

 

Ascot in the late twenties.....

 

American Paul Swedberg racing his Offenhauser midget at Mt Panorama, Bathurst, 25th March 1940:



Byron Gunther (a known photographer) in the Paul Swedberg car with Melbourne, Australia's George Beavis in 1941. (The car returned to the US soon after):

 

1936 Advert:

 

Donald Harkness driving "Whitey" a modified 1924 Willys-Overland:




"On leaving school he became an apprentice in general engineering. At the age of 20 he secured employment at J.C. Hiller's garage at Drummoyne and in 1922 the partnership of Harkness & Hiller Pty Ltd was formed .
Harkness developed an intrest in motor racing in 1924 he imported a WILLYS- OVERLAND chassis he modified extensively .In this car ( christened "WHITEY" ) Harkness won about 50 events at the Penrith and Maroubra tracks and at Gerringong's Seven Mile Beach."

 

Harkness and a V8 Hispano Suiza Minerva:



"V8 powerd Hispano Suiza Minerva with Harkness at the wheel. 107.14 mph was the exact recording . but apperently reached a speed of 120mph during land speed trials sanctioned by RACA."

 

Photo of Donald Harkness and Norman "Wizard" Smith:

 

Smith / Harkness effort:

"Harkness was approached by Smith and former Lord Mayor of Sydney Jack Moyston to build a car for Smith's attempts to break the Australasian one mile and the world ten mile records . The result was the "ANZAC" with a Rolls Royce V12 Eagle 8 aero engine and a Cadillac chassis."




"The creation resulted with the Australian record being raised to 128.571 mph at Gerringong,the team then took the "ANZAC" to Ninety Mile Beach, New Zealand, where it achieved an unofficial record 148 mph."

 

"Next project to be undertaken was the design and build of the "ENTERPRISE" A syndicate was formed - Smith ,Moysyn ,Jim James and Harkness whom was to build the car at cost. The car was named the "F.H.Stewart Enterprise" after its sponsor Sir Fredrick Stewart. they borrowed a Napier Lion W12 engine from a Schneider Seaplane
and fitted it to a specificly constructed chassis."

"Harkness had designed & built the car specifically to break the world one mile record which was held by seagrave . the car did however brake the world ten mile record at 164.084 mph .
BUT ALASS !
The celebrations were about to sour . somehow during the course of the events Harkness was absent from the car long enough for Smith and company to to fit an unsightly radiator. "




"On sight of this Harkness returned back to Australia in disgust.
A solem ending to such a great start."

excerts & pictures from this story have come from

POWER HOUSE MUSEUM ARCHIVES
THE BOOK / AUSTRALIA'S YESTERDAY'S
THE BOOK / A QUEST FOR SPEED

 

More Harkness photos and details:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/sets/72157623444749654/

 

T-head, do you think Schuster might have shared some DNA with Burt Munro? Sounds like something Burt would have done.

 

Just by way of a slight correction, according to George Schuster, in his book The Longest Auto Race, the stripped teeth were repaired by George Miller, his companion for most of the trip, while he was out looking for a spare transmission that had been shipped and lost.

The transmission repair finally failed several days later and Schuster had to go 215 miles by horse to retrieve the finally located new one, then bring it back. He states that it took all day for he and Miller to install it.

Boggles my mind how this was done with few tools or hoists.
Bob.