Dunedin Street Races - revival meeting January 1984

[Roger Dowding]

Moving on from Jim's early motoring memories to his first car - that he built
Furi 1.
Made from FoRd and aUstIn parts - hence the name.

" FURI (registered 1964)

I had run the car more or less in chassis form at a Hillclimb and later when most of the body was near complete it was duly entered in a grass circuit race near Kaitangata. A name was needed to register the car. As it was made of mainly Ford and Austin parts, it seemed appropriate that some letters from these names be combined to create the name of F.U.R.I.

A bit later I participated at a Waitati hill-climb where enthusiasm exceeded ability to the detriment of the Austin 7 front axle. The FURI performed a “wall of death" emulation on bank of the tight corner near the top. As the Austin axle assembly seemed insufficient to stand up to this abuse a split Ford 10 axle was fitted which improved handling immeasurably.

While the body was being completed, by Cliff, I persuaded him to allow me to borrow his ex aircraft cabin supercharger. With a larger bore Ford 10 block this gave the car somewhere around 65-70hp with a weight of around 500kg.

After a 4 year gestation the completed FURI was painted in an unusual shade of light purple. The paint was obtained from a painter who had incorrectly programmed his colour mixer. At the first major event for the car, the Nelson Beach Racing Championships, 1965, it performed creditably. The car was able to head off a young fellow named Trevor Crowe in a surprisingly quick elderly MG fitted with an overhead head inlet-valve Ford Prefect engine.

I had qualified for the race for the fifteen fastest cars. I made a good start but was being overtaken on a regular basis by the really quick cars. Attempting to re-pass, under braking, Wally Darrell driving his disc braked Zephyr powered ACE 111, was not a good idea with the FURI ending among the hay-bales.

Racing was curtailed for the car when a rear radius arm broke during the main race because it was hitting on the battery which seemed to be doing double duty as a bump stop. An independent rear end was created and this is the way the car competed for the next few years.

The engine was OK for short events such as hill-climbs and grass circuits but was marginal on longer sealed tracks. Running costs were low but a lot of time was required to keep the motor reasonably reliable. In 1967 a Teretonga, after setting an unofficial lap record, in practice, for specials up to 1200cc the crankshaft succumbed.

A contributing factor may have been the motor running way beyond 6000 RPM in top while slip-streaming Eddie Lipparts fastback Daimler Dart. On removing the engine from the gearbox the flywheel fell off. The crankshaft was broken into 4 pieces. A bit of the crank was still in the front and rear mains and the rest a mangled heap in the sump.

I later re-powered this with a 1500cc 4 cylinder LIP Vauxhall engine with MGB Cam grind, head work and a pair of SU carbs. The performance felt similar to the supercharged Ford 10 and was a reliable road car loaned to brother Cliff and a cousin on occasion for their work commute. "


Furi 1 seen here at Hoopers Inlet Hill Climb in 1964 think this is Hill Climb mentioned at the beginning.



The car appears in the article from " DriveSouth "- posted again
Have another photo of a young Jim sitting in the car when painted a purple colour but it will not upload [ operator error perhaps ] It is the same photo as in the article below;