Dunedin Street Races - revival meeting January 1984

[Roger Dowding]

Renwick Road Races Saturday 16 November 1963. another Marlborough Car Club archive

"Sports Cars and Specials scratch race of 6 laps, 9 miles, class A up to 1800cc and class B over 1800cc. No.4 is Ron Rutherford from Christchurch 260m Zephyr 2742cc, here leading Kelvin Brown from Nelson, Buckler 90 1172cc, with Charlie Bensemann from Motueka watching from the hay bales in his Stanton Special 6124cc.
John Riley from Manurewa won in his Lola-Ford Sports 1498cc in 8 minutes 35.6 seconds. Rutherford was 3rd in class B and Bensemann 5th. Brown was 5th in class A.
Thanks to John Penny for scanning, Marlborough Car Club historian Barry Voss and John Pierson for these images and notes."



The Stanton is the " Cropduster " wearing a Mistral Sports Car style body and Kelvin Browns Buckler has a Jarvie /Hawke body - they were " made concurrently with " the De Joux bodies that a number of Buckler had in the 1960's.

Think the Buckler is in this photo too - not at Renwick.
It is behind Josh Timms in the Austin Healey 100S, with the Ransley Riley - Don Stewart, ACE111 - Wally Darrell and Bill Harris in the Alfa P3, from the Harris family archives- I think the Healey Corvette is behind the Alfa P3.



Hoping that Kelvin Brown *** can confirm about the Jarvie bodied Buckler in this second photo - colour scheme "similar " - as Milan states stripe is different
** Kelvin believes it is Fred Mclean in the ex Doc Langley Mark 10 Buckler - he adds "car is missing

[Oldfart]

Minor comment re the 'glass bodies. Jarvie was not before the de Joux became available. They were produced concurrently, although maybe AMW (de Joux) was in more demand and as Ferris had a full time job as a window dresser so were not readily available on a short time scale?

[Milan Fistonic]

Quote - colour scheme looks right.

They look different to me. The white stripe in the top photo is straight, whereas the other one slopes from front to back.

[Roger Dowding]

Minor comment re the 'glass bodies. Jarvie was not before the de Joux became available. They were produced concurrently, although maybe AMW (de Joux) was in more demand and as Ferris had a full time job as a window dresser so were not readily available on a short time scale?

Thanks Rhys - post amended - both stylish designs, De Joux probably more modern looking the headlights and grille !

[Roger Dowding]

Quote - colour scheme looks right.

They look different to me. The white stripe in the top photo is straight, whereas the other one slopes from front to back.

Thanks Milan - I found out it is a different car the ex Doc Langley car - believed to be driven by Fred McLean - car is missing according to " Buckler " sources Kelvin Brown and others.

Good to know the thread is followed - all corrections welcome.
Cheers Roger D

[Roger Dowding]

Before Furi Cars ;

“I became interested in car racing when I was quite young. My older Brothers Ivan and Cliff both purchased Morgan sports cars in the late 1950’s and joining the Otago Sports Car Club participated in motorsport all over the South Island.

A little before this I had witnessed the first two motor racing events I had seen which probably had me hooked. Beach racing at Nelson 57/58 and the Dunedin Road race several weeks later.

My strongest recollections of this event are of Ross Jenson, who won the main race, in the ex Stirling Moss 250F Maserati. This was a four year old formula one car! [ Photo to come in post #167 ].

Also : Archie Scott-Brown driving spectacularly in a Lister Jaguar, in the Sports Car race. "

- Photo's 1, 2, and 3 Start of the Sports car Race Dunedin 1958








Photo 4 during the race


Oops by the Morgan - while the single seaters go past- my comment


Furi Cars to follow with Furi 1.

[Roger Dowding]

The story is in Jim Bennett's own words, most of the photos from the Bennett Family archives Jim and son Warren Bennett - a couple of Jim's photo's I have now managed to download,

From the previous part of the story ; The photo's

Bill Harris at Nelson beach Races 1957



Dunedin 1958 - the Racing Cars and Specials
Ross Jensen in the Maserati
RA Vanguard, Jensen in the Maserati 250F Bruce McLaren in the Cooper behind Jensen and Ron Roycroft in the Ferrari far right.



The Story ;
" FURI – The beginning

Cliff , had collected enough bits to start to build what was intended to be an Austin 7 special. The engine had already been upgraded to a Ford 8 as these could be obtained for the same price as an Austin and were more durable. However shortly after, car dealer. Sid Cottle had acquired a Ford 10 single seat speedway type midget and Cliff purchased this with only the minimum of encouragement from his kid brother. The only condition was that I would buy the Ford 8 motor for what it cost him and he would throw in all the other bits and help with construction and fabricate an aluminium body for me.

The Midget Special ; Finally uploaded - had to convert from png file *******47



Pre Furi One ;
This was when I was 14 and many of my high school exercise book covers testified to early body styling attempts.
It was agreed that I would pay off these parts with money from my after school job at Dunedin Electroplaters.

Toolmaking Apprentice.
Cliff had been getting some replacement thrust washers made for the Model T differential in his Midget. This work was done by the engineering firm of Wilson and Wilson who had recently been bought by Doug Ross and Gerald Hoare (ex employees of J & AP Scott Ltd respected engineers in the city). I had visited Scott’s, previously, with a few others from my class at Tech and was quite impressed with the range of machinery and variety of work being done. Cliff mentioned to me that one of the staff at Wilson & Wilson had told him they may be looking for an apprentice in the new year. Doug Ross was a car trials competitor of note and one time Otago Sports Car Club President. Gerald Hoare had a very quick Chev Coupe which he fitted a modified powerful GMC truck engine and had also built what was one of the first “dragsters" in NZ (11.8sec 1/4 mile in 1961) while a staff member rode a very quick Triumph "drag" motorbike that he had made. What better place for a budding car constructer to serve an apprenticeship?

I was on their doorstep on my way to High School the following Monday with my school reports to hand. This was something of a surprise to Doug and Gerald as they said that they hadn’t really discussed this position to any degree. However they gave me an interview and at my suggestion permitted me to start work part time after school and during the August holidays as a trial. I never mentioned to them that the Electroplaters were reducing part time staff and I was still paying off Cliff for the Ford 8 engine so there may have been some ulterior motive in my apparent enthusiasm for starting at the engineering works.

A few years after completing my apprenticeship I had the opportunity of acquiring the shareholding of Doug Ross when he decided to quit the business and became co director with Gerald Hoare.

Gerald Hoare
I first became aware of Gerald at the first Otago Sports Car Club standing ¼ mile sprint, that I saw (1958). He had 1939 Chev Delux Coupe which he had repowered it with a 4.5 litre ex army truck engine. As a confessed “hot rod” enthusiast he had done significant modifications to the engine to increase the performance. He sourced performance camshafts and other parts from the USA.

This was difficult in those days as one could only purchase US$1.00 postal note per day from a post office. He used to leave work as soon as the bell rang at 4:30 and try and visit as many Post Offices as possible before they shut at 5:00pm.

I recall also a ¼ mile sprint around 1959 or 60 where there was a good selection of “modern” high performance cars. Jaguars Xk120 & XK140, Aston Martin DB4, Austin Healey 100S of Fred Losee and a C Type Jaguar sports racer driven by David Young from Timaru. The Chev coupe had fastest time of the day beating the C Type Jaguar by about 1/10th of a second doing a low 15 second time. He also drove the Chev to Tramway Road near Rangiora (and back) where the NZ speed records for cars and motorbikes were set. The Chev was officially timed over a flying ¼ mile at in excess of 200KPH - 126MPH as I recall. Fast in those days for a road legal saloon
"

[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;

[Roger Dowding]

A photo provided by Kwaussie [ Patrick ] who knew the Bennett brothers and sent me this ;

Cliff and Ivan were Jim Bennett's older brothers and were into racing cars in the 1950's they both had Morgans and were as mentioned members of the Otago Sports Car Club.

Photo not dated but I have asked Jim Bennett if he knows when [ 2008 ] and where [ Dunedin ] he did so edited
[ and excuse the spelling of Lorraine D.... -my bad ]
Cliff Bennett and the Lotus based Special,Jim and Furi 14, Ivan and the 1922 Lorraine Dietrich which has been in NZ since 1922. It will have a great story too !!
The Good Oil on the photo by Gerald O'Brien - it featured [ cropped ] in an article on the Bennett Boys in the Otago Daily Times back in July 2008 with notation " The retired Bennett brothers helped each other building this trio of vehicles. Photo by Gerard O'Brien "

Details of Cliff's car from Jim also ;
" Cliff’s car is a Lotus Europa that he bought as a write off. It had been in a collision and went on fire burning everything non metal. Cliff fabricated an aluminium body.

I helped Cliff fit a Fuego 1600? hemi pushrod engine & 5 speed gearbox with twin dellortos and a mild cam grind it was much nicer and quicker than the original 1400 Renault engine & 4 speed. More powerful on a rolling road than a good Lotus Elan.

He did much of the body work on all three cars, Ivan’s Lorraine only had scuttle forward, one door and the mudguards. "



Coming soon Furi 2,the Story - The Jaguar powered and supercharged car with a Commer TS3 supercharger
[ Roots type blower ].
That Commer TS3 could be a side story.

Another photo that I have found from a guy who owned Furi 5 at some stage Russ Cunningham from Bay of Plenty



This car story will be later on.
Also more photo's from the Bennett Boys early years ..

[Roger Dowding]

A link to the story from the " Otago Daily Times ".

This is where the photo was used ; photo by Gerald O'Brien ;



The story '

" https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/b...-driving-force " .

[Roger Dowding]

" Every male likes looking at a sexy rear end, right? "
not my words but agree. - written by Warren Bennett - his Dad's car..



Furi 9 the car called Impulse ; story will follow !!

[Roger Dowding]

As has been mentioned I first saw this car in 1984 and just knew it as a " Jaguar powered Special " until one of my photos was followed up with information from the Bennett's, Jim and Warren.

This is Jim's story of Furi 2 .

" FURI 2 (registered 1979)

I had acquired a Raymond Mays cylinder head but didn’t have enough courage to cut two cylinders off to make it fit one of the Consul engines in the Wolseleys.

When the Wolseleys were sold the image of a GMC powered sports car remained and morphed into a Zephyr powered car with a Raymond Mays cylinder head instead. Parts were being gathered for this car when I was offered a cheap Mk 7 Jaguar engine and about the same time was given a big supercharger off a Commer TS3 2 stroke diesel. These unusual engines had 6 pistons horizontally opposed in 3 cylinders operating through a series of connecting rods and levers to a crankshaft under the cylinders.

In a short time the GMC then Zephyr became a supercharged Jaguar powered device. A "simple" clubman body style was envisaged. As I had only a single phase electric welder the chassis was made out of heavy wall 40mm square tube. This was also reasoned as being more durable for long term road car use.

After the rolling chassis was finished it was found that "power bulges" would be everywhere to cover the tall engine and supercharger. It had been hoped that brother Cliff might be prevailed upon to do an alloy body, again. However he was assisting Ivan in the complete restoration of a 1923 Lorraine Dietrich for which the only bits of body were not much more than a door and a bonnet.
Cliff had also acquired the remains of a Lotus Europa which had been run over by a Chev Impala. The body was destroyed in the ensuing conflagration. It was obvious that my project would be a fair way down the body-builder’s list so the decision was made to try my hand at making a fibreglass body.

The chassis was built one Easter. Three months were needed to build the buck from which the body would be moulded. Three days to lay up the glass. Three years to grind out the buck, fill and sand the body and finish the thing off.

Just after it was finished Lin Neilson suggested that I take it to a "Country Gents" meeting at Levels. Approval would have to be sought from the organiser. He said that because it had a Jag engine it was OK so we were allowed to participate.

Furi 2 continued – a couple of my own photos follow;

Practice was spent trying to come to grips with the performance which was more than 200 hp greater than anything else I had raced. As well I was somewhat rusty having not been on a track for over 10 years.

Raced over the next ten years some improvements were made to the handling and braking but greed for horsepower and increased boost made the car less reliable. Even with this it was driven to and from many events. The car has always been driveable after an event..

The car was re-chassied in 1991 with “Frank Costin Lister” type spaceframe in light gauge tube. Falcon limited slip diff, Mk4 Cortina front suspension, Falcon front discs with Mazda RX7 Series 4 - 4 pot calipers, Turbo Commodore rears. SD1 Rover 5 speed gearbox. More room inside the car plus better routing of the exhaust has made this car much more pleasant for touring. "

Photos of Furi 2 ..

Chasing Thelma Bennett in Furi 6



My photos Dunedin 1984 Festival Meeting.



The engine and supercharger



Details of the Commer TS3 Motor and twin roller supercharger.



Have a couple more photos of the car but need to be changed to Jpg file for posting - a work in progress

[Roger Dowding]

There is more to come on the FURI cars 3 to 9 [ The Impulse ] and on to 19 these stories willfollow.
In the meantime getting back to Dunedin in 1984 There was a visitor from Australia Racing - Bruce Polain in this car - well this is my photo of the engine ;

The guy working on it has been identified as Graham Snape



The car is the " Wylie Javelin " built by Arthur Wylie in 1950. a very advanced car for its time - a bit like Hec Green's RA Vanguard.
A small photo - will try to get a bigger version of this photo and the SCW story



The field getting ready for the single seater and specials race ; The Wylie Javelin in the third row



The entry list for the event - thanks to " Annie Swain " Fb name - the real person [ TRS member Mark D - Mark Dawber ] was racing a huge Pontiac saloon.



This Pontiac - posted before - still have the car.


The Saloon entry list posting again
see the great Doug Algie was racing too !!




There are a couple of articles from 1951 Australian Motorsport and another from 1966 Sports Car World on this car I which will publish here once resized.

[Milan Fistonic]

You could have bought the Wylie Javelin in 1954 for 1150 Australian Pounds. The advert was in the magazine Australian Motor Sports that was edited and published by Arthur Wylie.

[Roger Dowding]

You could have bought the Wylie Javelin in 1954 for 1150 Australian Pounds. The advert was in the magazine Australian Motor Sports that was edited and published by Arthur Wylie.

Must send that to Bruce Polain [ with your permission ] who raced the car here in NZ in 1984 - he has sent me a link to an article on the car.
Cheers, Milan

[Roger Dowding]

Furi 2 photos - Jim Bennett's





The Midgets Jim Bennett's own photo 1964.




Furi 9,The Impulse - an entry list photo Southern Festival of Speed 1993- car was not quite finished according to Jim

[Roger Dowding]

From South Island Motorsport Fb page.
Photo1 from Allan Dick -front of the field with the DR Promotion Vauxhall PA at the side.



Photo 2 from Kelvin Brown archives - Kelvin is in the green Ford 8 Special Saloon far right at the back.
The cars further back in the field - the DR [ De Reske Cigarettes ] Car has moved



The entry list for the Races from Graham Woods. Four Hotels putting up the prize money and Cigarette sponsorship too - when you could !!



A full set - except I don't have the results .. will keep looking as Graham Woods may well have the " Motorman " comments on the meeting.

Amendment the first Four placing for the Saloon Races - posted #178 by Milan Fistonic - copied below.
" 1st 108 Paul Fahey, 2nd 30 John Ward, 3rd 7 Warner Collins, 4th 44 Tony Lawrence. ".

The final Race ; read Milan's story regarding the events and incidents ;
" won by Fahey ahead of Ward, Bill Norrish (in Nazer's Anglia) and Innes. "

[Milan Fistonic]

The results for that race were: 1st 108 Paul Fahey, 2nd 30 John Ward, 3rd 7 Warner Collins, 4th 44 Tony Lawrence. The reason Ward doesn't appear on that entry list is there were two saloon car heats and the organisers moved some cars from one heat to the other to even up the fields. Bryan Innes and Jim Mullins were moved to what was supposed to be the over 2000cc race where they finished first and second ahead of Rod Coppins in the Zephyr-Corvette and I. Dow in his 3.8 Jaguar. Coppins was leading but had to pit but was black-flagged as a radius-arm had come adrift. After a brief check he resumed the race and still managed third place. The final was won by Fahey ahead of Ward, Bill Norrish (in Nazer's Anglia) and Innes.

[Roger Dowding]

The brothers Ivan and Cliff in their Morgans, Fred Losee in AHS3802 the 100S that was with Josh Timms and Fred in the early 1960's.
[ More on that 100S in the Austin Healey thread



Some of the Boys in their own cars ; in this Jim is in Cliff's Car from a newspaper cutting

[Roger Dowding]

Furi 1 at Hoopers Inlet in 1966 - has a different nose and grille to the earlier photo.



Another shot of the car in 1966 guise


Jim Racing at Nelson in 1964 in Cliff's Midget, Jims notes
" The Nelson one where I am driving brother Cliff’s Midget he is following back a bit in his GT Cortina powered Morgan. We were in the handicap race for Sports & Specials up to 1700cc. Cliff started last and I was 5 seconds ahead. The pic was taken about a lap from the end and I passed the rest of the field. Cliff overtook me in the same place a lap later to win. "




Then again in Nelson 1965 in Furi 1. - Jim's notes;
as on the photo - " Nelson 1965 Jim in Furi 1, Rob Christie Singer Austin Trevor Crowe MG T "



Both photos from Nelson Mail- archives The Nelson Mail spread of photos from this meeting has been posted on South Island Motorsport Facebook page - it includes this photo and many others !

Finally a Warren Bennett photo from Skope 2009
Furi 2 and Furi 6 both feature and the C Type Replica with others.