Pawnee, Courier, and Tiger Air 2 Air

[Gavin Conroy]

here are a few from last weekend and have posted more on my website

[Dave Homewood]

Superb! I love the Tiger Moth over the river shot.

[flyjoe180]

I agree, the Tiger Moth photo is really good. Did we ever get to the bottom of why it has several exhaust stubs rather than the one pipe?

[yak2]

Lovely pics. Re Tiger exhaust stubs. Common to most Australian built DH82's, along with ply leading edges and no strakes.

[planeimages]

Speaking of Australian-built DH82As here are some shots of my friend's self-built Gipsy Major-engined FIAT racing car:



A DH82A about to devour the Gipsy Major-engined FIAT at Rutherford



Birth pains. The Gipsy Major started for the first time in Frank’s car. Stub exhausts provided a colourful photographic composure. Interesting Sprite running up the #3 pipe.



Coaxing the SU fed Gipsy Major in to life.

[Dave Homewood]

I'll bet that car sounds lovely ticking over. Great photos Peter. I like the flame in the exhaust.

[flyjoe180]

Nice photos, thanks. Does the engine retain it's distinctive noise when fitted to the car?

[planeimages]

I have only heard the engine ticking over with a few blips to obtain the flames out the exhaust. Yes, I would say that it sounds like a Tiger Moth, lots of chuff chuff. Of course, it doesn’t have the prop adding its tune. The SUs needed some tuning so it probably wasn’t as smooth as it will be.

I wasn't present when the car had its first run at Wakefield Park on 15th November. It ran OK but the gearbox needed some more evenly-spaced ratios and it being rebuilt.

Frank also built a similar car a couple of years ago powered by a Cirrus engine. Frank drove it at the Berrima District Aero Club's air day at Mittagong on 2nd December. The Cirrus is loud enough and they tell me the Gipsy Major is noisier.

Here is Frank belting along MIG's strip in the Cirrus:



You have several aero-engined cars in NZ. Frank's pair makes 5 in Australia I believe.

Both cars are recent builds using old components in the style of their respective periods.



And here are the pair rising out of Lake Alexandra at Mittagong last fall.



The noise was loud but we got the shot!

[Dave Homewood]

That Cirrus engined car is gorgeous.

What aero-engined machines are here in NZ?

And what's that last photo of? I don't get it.

[flyjoe180]

Those are exhaust flames Dave, taken at night. You can't see the flames during the day. Hence some WW2 fighters had shields under the canopy to block the glare from the stubs so night vision wasn't compromised. Such as the example on the Hurricane below

[Dave Homewood]

I get it now, thanks

[planeimages]

Well picked flyjoe180. We really wanted to show the engine in the ambient light but revving the engine to make the flames wasn't exactly "flying neighbourly" at 6.00pm in the back blocks of sleepy Mittagong.

Here are some details on two of the aero-engined NZ cars that I am aware of:

First New Zealand
International
Grand Prix 1954
Morrie Stanton NZ Stanton Special / DeHavilland 6124cc 4cy



Ferrum Engineering has a long association with New Zealand's most famous and successful racing car. The Lycoming Special was at the forefront of New Zealand Motorsport throughout the 1950's, 60's and into the 70's.
The Lycoming was built by Ralph Watson in the early 1950's. It was a revolutionary design with the air cooled 5244cc aircraft engine running through a Studebaker gearbox to a Ford V8 differential. The engine is upside down and back to front. Ralph Watson designed and built his own fuel injection system for the Lycoming.
During it's long and successful racing career it has been raced by many notable drivers including;
- Jim Boyd (Officially timed at Pukekohe reaching 151mph/240kph - although no written record exists)
- Malcolm Gill
- Jim Clark (F1 World Champion)
- Bruce McLaren (Founder of the McLaren Racing Team which still competes in F1 today)
Around1982 Ralph Smith purchased the car and set about rebuilding it from two trailer loads of parts with no instruction manual. Since the restoration Ralph has regularly competed at Classic and Historic Race meetings throughout New Zealand. He has taken the car to Race Meetings in Australia and the United States including Philip Island and Laguna Seca.
Ferrum Engineering is very proud of its association with the Lycoming and feel privileged to be assisting in the preservation of New Zealand's most successful racing car.

[Bruce]

Wallace McNair has a beautiful 1920's Style (albeit modern) roadster powered by a Sunbeam Maori V12 (as used on HP400 Bombers in WW1) I havent seen it in the flesh yet, but in pictures I've seen it looks absolutely awesome and probably goes like stink too.....