Dunedin Street Races - revival meeting January 1984

[Roger Dowding]

1992 FURI (9) IMPULSE

The first part of the story [ about 2/3rds of Jim's words on the car ]

" After building Furi 7 and 8 over subsequent years I also did some soul searching about the kitcar business and not knowing where the Land Transport regulations would end up I came to the conclusion that if it was successful I would end up with another engineering business and if not I would be pouring money down a black hole. So that a little self indulgence seemed in order.


A proper old type single seater like the midget raced in the 60's always held some appeal. Having always liked the appearance of the Jamieson twin-cam Austin 750 of 1934 I decided to create a look-a-like. I would have preferred to use a water cooled 4 cylinder motorcycle engine but the rules of the Classic movement meant using oldish components. A Hillman Imp seemed the only really suitable engine that I could think of that would have a similar specification and similar power to the original Austin which had a very special 750 alloy twin-cam putting out around 112 BHP at 7000rpm in 1934!

A boot load of bits were acquired from a long time friend. As design progressed on the Austin Look-a-like it was decided to utilise Imp parts for most of the car including the front hubs and kingpins, attached to a piece of tube for an axle, rear mounted gearbox inverted got the drive the right way and conveniently lowered the propeller shaft 100mm allowing a low seating position like the Austin. As the Imp steering rack was used this meant that the engine had to be leaned a bit to the left for the steering column to clear the distributor. A Shorrock supercharger from my squirrel like collection was fitted behind the motor, above the foot-well, and driven by a shaft running alongside the cylinder head. To tidy the appearance up another Imp cam cover was fitted over this tipped over at the opposite angle to the engine. This gave the appearance of a twin-cam a bit like the Austin and has provided as much fun listening to comments as driving the car does.

Words and Photo's Jim Bennett;

The Engine - photo as posted the other day from Dunedin ;



another photo with the The late Ralph Watson looking on. Showing the Engine



The Car at " Levels " April 2019. Again showing the Engine



The Car in action Warren Bennett photo - [ small ].



Tony Lucas tribute to the car.
Photo Tony Lucas.
Under construction;



The car now completed ;
Photo Tony Lucas



More to follow : soon

[Roger Dowding]

Jim Bennett is still racing Furi 9.

Some more of his story - plus some other notes on the car from Jim.

First from his story ;

" Furi 9 Impulse – continued
Various troubles persisted for a while with head joint sealing but these have been overcome with the performance of this little car is quite outstanding. It is often able to keep up with much larger engined cars particularly on "handling" circuits.

In 2017 I upgraded the engine and transmission to a carefully built Rally Imp specification using a block fitted with wet cylinder liners.

We had a very successful Southern Classic series in Feb 2019. Competing in the Vintage Car Class at Ruapuna, Levels and Teretonga, on subsequent weekends, the car managed to start and finish 13 races with 10 being in one of the top 3 finishing places, including five wins "


Notes from an event in 2014.

" I ran the Impulse at the Gore V.C.C. Hill-climb at Josephville (near Lumsden) again yesterday (16th), Second place again! Beaten by 0.06 seconds on the last run by Grant Clearwater in the Capella. This car is Zephyr engined (with Raymond Mays head). The Capella was built in the mid 1960's in Southland originally fitted with a supercharged Vanguard engine. The first time I raced at on Teretonga, in 1966, I competed against this car. It was quicker than my car then too. In the Photo Stewart Quertier is presenting Grant the winner's trophy. Alex McLennan, standing behind Stewart, also one of the organisers, competed as well. His Vauxhall Special that he built in the 1950s is in the background. "

Ref #61 photo Gore VCC Hill Climb– 16 November 2014.



Ref #48 - VCC Hill Climb at Sandy Bay, Motueka 2014



Ref #72 Highlands Park 2015

Notes from Warren Bennett, Jim's son about the photo; [ below ]

" that's nephew Gareth Bennett sitting on the wheel. Oldest brother, Ivan's son. Jim as usual in the pilot seat. I look forward to reading your story. Fyi, when you get to it, Furi 5 was mine, i raced it 3 times I think, Ruapuna once, Teretonga once and Levels was its debut and it broke the exhaust upon launch of it's first race, and the whole thing from manifold to end shot out under the back wheel and into the front of Keith McIvor's Fiat Dino. "

[ It should be mentioned that Warren Bennett is a model builder of some note as well - more modern cars than Chaindrive ]



Re #53 Levels 2019 - with the Lycoming - event as mentioned above by Jim Bennett.



Ref #52 Another photo of the car in 2019 - someone will know which track and who is in the Red car - on the grid.



Finally a Tony Lucas photo of the the Jim Bennett Furi 9 Impulse with Peter Leversedge's Special.
[ In miniature of course as Chaindrive does ].

[Roger Dowding]

Furi 9 ;
Jim Bennett has posted today on the Facebook group " New Zealand Built Racing Cars " a longer version of the Furi 9 story and the photo of the car at Dunedin in the foyer of the " Dunedin Art Gallery " - in 1990.

I will relay the story here - together with a couple more photos ;
The story is more detailed on the " Why - build the car " and the " How - the construction details.

Story to follow soon ;

[Roger Dowding]

More on the Impulse to build the Imp powered Special that is Furi 9;

Jim Bennetts own words as posted recently - borrowed with his permission;

" Background to the basis of the car;

The Impulse Story
Denis Jenkinson’s Racing Car Pocketbook, which I have had since a teenager, has a car in it which caught my imagination. More so when once during a visit to the Donnington Collection. Jenk’s book describes the Austin 750cc twin cam racing car as “like a Grand Prix Mercedes Benz in miniature”.
The original three cars and two spare engines were built in the Austin motors toolroom for the 1936 season at a cost reported in excess of 300,000 pounds. Running on alcohol fuel these specially designed twin cam engines produced, for that time, an amazing 116 BHP at 7500 RPM – the maximum safe speed for the Austin Co’s dynamometer. In competition the engines were limited to 9000rpm. This little jewel of an engine was fitted into a small single seater chassis. On tight circuits such as Crystal Palace, Donnington and the Shelsey Walsh and Prescott hill climb these cars were competitive, often winning against contemporary opposition of more than double the engine size. At Brooklands, among a number of records, they set the 750cc 10 mile record 122 mph.
The cars also competed successfully in Europe with many class wins at hillclimbs as well as racing at the Nurburgring winning the up to 1100cc class.
As only two cars remain, the possibility of my being able to obtain one seemed remote in the extreme. The next best option seemed to me to make a car which would look and perform like the original. An accurate replica was dismissed as everything on the originals was purpose made at great cost. Whilst I had some access to good engineering facilities such use is limited. "

Building the Car

" “A car using Austin 7 parts was not even considered as the ”Twin Cam” used few if any parts from these cars. Here in the South Island it is acceptable to race at classic events with a retrospective vehicle. That is, a car of older design, using old parts but being recently constructed. I would have preferred a late model water cooled motorcycle engine but the chances of acceptability by the classic fraternity was deemed remote. The decision was made to use Hillman Imp donor parts on the basis that the engine was a similar lightweight design. With the addition of a Shorrock supercharger, which I had squirreled away, it was hoped that similar power to the original would be obtained.
The garage of a friend was raided for Imp spares whilst and advertisement in the local newspaper supplied the remainder. “No picking and choosing you take everything or nothing”.
A rudimentary channel section chassis with tubular cross members and a tubular front axle were constructed by closely studying and scaling photos and articles of the original. The front axle is sprung with a transverse leaf spring whilst two quarter elliptic rear springs mount a De Dion tube rear axle. The Imp engine attaches rigidly to the chassis in front of the driver with a short drive-shaft from the clutch passing beneath the seat to a reversed, inverted Imp gearbox to provide a low seating position.
A shaft alongside the engine drives a water-pump and the supercharger mounted behind the engine. This is prettied up somewhat by being hidden under a spare Imp cam cover. A by product of this is that bystanders invariably think the engine is actually a twin cam.
The engine has been modified to Rally Imp specifications. That is it has been converted to wet cylinder liners with slightly larger forged pistons raising the engine size to 998cc. All high strength bolts and studs of higher quality material than original. The Imp Sport cylinder head has enlarged inlet valves and some gas flowing. Double valve springs and a billet camshaft are fitted. The block and head clamp the gasket with the aid of metal “O” rings to keep compression in and water out. A stronger diaphragm clutch is mounted on a light weight flywheel. An oil/water heat exchanger is used to keep both temperatures near the same.
The body is mainly aluminium with a fiberglass nose and tail. Simple oil and water gauges are mounted each side of a large rev. counter, cut from a Fiat 850 instrument cluster. The dark green body is offset by MGB wire wheels fitted with approved historic race tyres.

The result is a Hillman Imp special based on a 1930’s design with similar appearance, performance and handling to the Austin 750 Twin Cam. A weight of 400 KG and around 100hp provides rapid acceleration. Top speed is around 175 KPH. It recorded a standing ¼ mile time of 14.02 seconds in 2019.
Raced since 1993 the performance of the car has exceeded my expectations. It took several meetings to gain enough confidence to start chucking it around but it is really quite easy to drive and is enormous fun. While only occasionally being a winner it generally runs with the quicker old style front engined cars. For me the biggest buzz is sliding through a turn in close company with other competitors and seeing them on the limit – working their steering in and effort to stay ahead. Something you can’t see with moderns.
The car is FURI design number 9 and is called Impulse. I’m informed it is like the nature of the constructor. "
- Jim's own words.

Potential driver of the car in about 7 -10 years time ? Jim's Grandson



The young drivers might currently enjoy this Furi - model by Chaindrive -not sure if would approve though !!



Jim has built a car for his Grandchildren but the Young Fellow above has outgrown it I think ; more to follow on Furi above Number 9 - up to 19.

[Roger Dowding]

Photo from Peters own archives - a " framed " portrait of the Car at Tahuna[nui] 1960's - undated.



Must get back to the " Nelson Photo News " for more of the Beach Races..

[Roger Dowding]

Dunedin 1984 - the first time I saw this car race .

Have posted photos for Mark D and the " Aircraft Carrier " Pontiac Bonneville, and Mark had added other photos of the car.

There were Sprint Meetings in Queenstown in 1986 and 1987, Mark D attended them.
This set of photos from Gary Talbot - part of the Bramwell Family collection and some of Mark D's own collection - showing that Pontiac.
The car being attended of to the right, with Mark's wife holding the Umbrella



Some of the competitors - including the Lister Jaguar - of Paul Leuch !!.



The Lister an XK140 and the nose of the Pontiac


Waiting behind another " Aircraft carrier " a Chrysler / Mopar Product a big Plymouth


Pontiac- starting off


The Car this time at Wigram - Bramwell Collection Mark D aka Annie Swain, now Carnerd Mark on Fb. noted that had not seen this photo.

[Roger Dowding]

A good read of Allan Dick's story of the Impulse and Jim Bennett and his Furi Cars.
Front cover of the Magazine



Furi 9 .. first page of the article..

[Roger Dowding]

Back to where the thread started Dunedin Street Races ' 84
Cutting from the " Dunedin Midweek " Wednesday 1st February 1984
This was the Centrespread of the issue - the only pages I kept.



The notes are incorrect Car in Photo #9 Top centre is not the " Clark 1952 Cooper Bristol " but the Haig Citroen Special, which was driven by Ralph Smith - who also had the Lycoming there !
Have looked up some of the cars History - story to follow.

The newspaper cutting is interesting as has Cars for Sale on the back of the spread.





Buy of the week a 3.0 litre Ford Capri Ghia Mark 11 for $14,999.

[Roger Dowding]

Haig Citroen Special
a bit of the History

" “ It gave up its front assembly, gearbox diff driveshafts and the 1991 ** typo [ 1911 ] cc 4 cylinder Citroen Motor
With the Traction avant [ front wheel drive ] working behind the driver in reverse.
The little car also contained many lightweight aircraft parts “ GV
“ It was built during 1952 in Timaru. “ GV
Car painted Blue – indications from a 1950 Light 15
Car is a rear engine single seater Racing Car.
History of Ownership and Competition
Doug Haig Race Number 18
1953 Dunedin - the NZ Championship Road Race [ NZ CRR ] placed 6th
Details confirmed in the Vintage Car Club of N Z Otago Branch Book “ Racing Round the Houses “by Scott Thomson – published in 1983
1953 Mairehau - placed 5th
1953 Lady Wigram placed 5th
1953 C W F Hamilton Trophy Race – Handicap placed 1st on Handicap

1954 C W F Hamilton Trophy Race – Handicap placed 1st on Handicap

1956 “ saw the little blue rear-engined special sold to Vic Blackburn from Waipara in 1956.
He painted it green “ GV
1956 South Island Championship Road Race [ SI CRR ] no details --

1957 Wigram placed 2nd
1957 SI CRR no details --

1958 Wigram placed 5th

1959 Waimate “ Specials Race “ placed 1st
No mention of this in the Book “ The Racing Years 1959 – 1966 The History of the Waimate 50 “
1960 The Waimate 50 book mentions lap times for Specials
“ Citreon [ Citroen ] 1 min 21.5 ( Blackburn, ’60 ) “

In all these events engine described as a 1911 cc 4 [1911/4 ] so the Citroen Light 15, later DS and ID 19 Motor.

Graham Vercoe states “ Ralph Smith owned it for a time. He had a spectacular finish at Invermay Hillclimb when the car became airborne on a hump just after the finish line and demolished three fence posts, a few standards and a few metres of number eight “ GV

Car owned /driven by Ralph Smith in 1984
1984 Dunedin Road Race “84 “ car entered by Ralph Smith – painted Green Race number 18
Listed as 1950 model with 2088 cc engine [ a Standard Vanguard or Triumph TR motor ].
***see note below - Car now back with a Citroen Motor..
A photo of the car appears in a Montage of the Competitors from the “Dunedin Weekly News “
1st February 1984

1991 – In his book ” Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand “Graham Vercoe states that “ The bright yellow car is presently owned and raced by Les Marshall. “ GV

Main History – Graham Vercoe Books,
- the car history from “ Historic racing Cars of New Zealand.
- race entry’s –results from that book but mainly “ The Golden Era of New Zealand Motor Racing “

Word in Italics are mine.

Some photos of the car from 1953 to 1984 and more recent

C W F Hamilton Trophy 1953. 1st place on Handicap - Photo Graham Vercoe Book - Christchurch Star



Placing at Waimate - 6th 1959



The car at Dunedin 1984 - from the Montage on the "Dunedin Midweek ".



On the Grid with other Single Seaters [ Racing cars ] and Specials -my own photo Dunedin 1984 [ posted before ].
Another car in the photo at the back is the Wylie Javelin which came to New Zealand in 1954 but did not start at the NZ GP meeting that year - was driven by its creator Brian Wylie .in 1984 driven by Bruce Polain - the recent [ 1980's on ]- owner.



More recent photos of the car

Brian Bonisch recent photo at a South Island meeting - in the paddock.



Car at Ruapuna 2010 [Skope meeting ] with Peter Leversedge in close company- photo John MacDonald.



New comment *** from Ralph Smith " The Citroen did have a vanguard motor for a short period of time while the Citroen motor was being rebuilt and was fitted about six years ago. "

[Roger Dowding]

Interesting field of cars in 1956 .. NZ Championship Beach Race ..Pines Beach Thanks to John McDonald for the archive photo.

The Haig Citroen, driven by Vic Blackburn - also seen here the Ransley Riley, and a couple of Austin Healey's
- I think Arthur Kennard ** in the front row - this would be before the V8 was fitted, but the bonnett has been fitted with louvres.
Back row the Duncan Rutherford Lycoming left next to the famous #77 Special now owned [ since 1965 ] by Peter Leversedge - would have been driven by Bill Harris at this time [ note from Peter L ] and a Midget style car,another Special, and a Healey
Front row the Haig Citroen, ** Arthur Kennard Healey, Ransley Riley, another Midget style car - not sure about the " single seater " on the right - front row - looks familiar .. with the white painted snout !

some notes are from Peter Leversedge John McDonald and others.. from the South Island Motorsport and Old New Zealand Motor racing facebook pages.

[Oldfart]

Jelly, I can't be bothered going back through the 11 pages here, but I am pretty confident the answer to what you have posed is in this thread.

[jellywrestler]

Jelly, I can't be bothered going back through the 11 pages here, but I am pretty confident the answer to what you have posed is in this thread.

have been through and it's not clarified mr Oldfart. There's a missing link with a shortened fryatt street circuit that i know was used in 1958 as i have the program. It was an observation, rather than a critiscism, a history book with some very well researched stuff but gaps as i saw it. I've found this too with the Levin circuit book, there were two tracks, it was lengthened to meet trans tasman series requirements and clearly the author had all the programs on hand, yet there was only the latter circuit diagram in there. I'm currently writing a book on motorcyle road racings circuits in new zealand, looking at approx 130 different circuits including variations. I'm only covering bike years and luckily I have got the data i need.

[jellywrestler]

interesting corner at dunedin late 1960's, railway lines a meter from the curb terrible on a bike, not much fun on a car either i'd expect

[Roger Dowding]

Jw - Graeme - thanks for that image - have seen a couple of photos of the 1950's /60's version of the Street Circuit where the surface changes dramatically and is rather bumpy.. must see if I can find them .. and repost !!

[Roger Dowding]

Jw - Graeme - thanks for that image - have seen a couple of photos of the 1950's /60's version of the Street Circuit where the surface changes dramatically and is rather bumpy.. must see if I can find them .. and repost !!

Not the Railway lines but the exit from a bridge in 1958 - The Sports Car Race with change of camber




another corner with a Morgan in the sandbank while a couple of 500cc single seaters and a Cooper go past.



Both photos from Jim Bennett archives - his brothers were racing Morgans at the time.
one photo appear in the Scott Thomson book " Racing Round the Houses "
- published by the Vintage Car Club of N. Z. Otago branch in 1983.
It credits the photo entitled " down we come " of the three sports cars of R J Blackburn ( Mistral ) Lawrence in the middle car and Edmiston in the #44 Morgan to the " Star 1958 "

The second photo is the Edmiston Morgan #44

Entry List for the Sports Car race


Car #50 must have been a late entry - as not shown.
A good collection of Healey's in the Race George Lawton in his 100/6, Graham Pierce in the ex Seabrook Fowlds Ross Jensen 100S that is still in New Zealand, Arthur Kennard in the recently [ 1957 ] repowered Healey 100 - now the Healey Corvette R B Langley in a Healey 100 - is that Doc Langley ?. M Stewart in another 100/6 the 100 Six cars would have been quite new then- introduced in 1957.

Have put Jim Bennett and Graham Woods as credit for the entry list- part of both Guys archives.

There was another part of the track in the 1950's where the road was for a few yards [in old money ] metal then back to seal which caught a few out -now to find the photo !

[stubuchanan]

[QUOTE=Roger Dowding;73138]



another corner with a Morgan in the sandbank while a couple of 500cc single seaters and a Cooper go past.

(QUOTE)

Unusual to see Railway Station Tower in Dunedin road race photos. The sandbank seems to have been a fixture at all Wharf Circuit races; probably the only place on the track where cars were likely to hit a building. The building by the Morgan perched on the sandbank looks like a former pub on Google Street View - has a door exactly on the corner of Tewsley St where the cars turned right and back towards start/finish. Maybe that's one of the patrons leaning on the upstairs window sill.
Other years the track turned right towards railway and then left along Thomas Burns St.

Could car 14 be Merv Neil in the Cooper Climax he had just bought from Brabham?

Stu

[Roger Dowding]

Those Railway lines through the middle of a corner of the track in 1969 - caused some problems.

Graeme Staples photo of the corner.



Graham Stoot and another rider on the corner - the lines causing a problem.
Graeme Staples archives photo

[jellywrestler]

so was this a one off meeting in 1984 or part of a new wave of meetings please folks?

[Milan Fistonic]

so was this a one off meeting in 1984 or part of a new wave of meetings please folks?

I have programmes for meetings in 1992,1995, 1996 and 1998.

[Roger Dowding]

This from " Dunedin Photo Review " - which must be like the Town Photo News publications like " Nelson Photo News ".

Graham Woods found this piece and the source led me to a Website on Museums of New Zealand.
I could not find the actual Magazine on the site.



Map of the Track 1959 and details of the event. from OSCC Wheelspin Magazine - courtesy Graham Woods.



Must get back to the Jim Bennett story and his FURI cars. its been a while.