The Origins of a Car Making Obsession

WORDS AND PHOTOS JIM BENNETT

During 1961 my older brother Cliff had acquired a Ford 10 midget racing car from Dunedin car dealer Sid Cottle, father of racer Barry, with a little encouragement from me, his kid brother. The only condition was that I take over his project to build an Austin Seven special for which he had been collecting parts.

He had already upgraded it with a Ford Eight engine and said that he would assist me and fabricate the body work if I paid what it cost him for the Ford engine. I was then 14 and with an after school and Saturday morning job at Dunedin Electroplaters thought I could fund this. As Cliff was a panel beater I felt that we could achieve a fair result. He had books including How to Build 750cc and 1172cc Racing Cars and Racing and Sports Car Chassis Design both of which I had studied at length.

The following year we had the chassis on its wheels and I had begun my final year at King Edward Technical College where I was studying School Certificate engineering subjects. The Austin chassis had been boxed to stiffen it. This entailed welding a steel strip to the underside of the top-hat section side members. Reset springs and a dropped front axle had already been done to lower the chassis. At the rear, spring mountings were welded to a Ford 8 axle housing to locate Austin Seven quarter elliptic springs. Radius rods were fitted on the axle housing as well as mountings to a cross member on the chassis.

Cliff was having some work done by an engineering business on parts for his midget and he told me that one of the staff said that they may be looking for an apprentice in the New Year. The new owners of this business were successful motor sport competitors. One of these, Gerald Hoare, had built what may have been the first quarter mile dragster in New Zealand, while staff member John Martin had built a very quick Triumph drag motorbike. I could not imagine a 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 the owners as they claimed that they hadn’t really discussed this position seriously. However they interviewed me 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 needed a job to pay Cliff for the Ford 8 engine.

As my toolmaking apprenticeship progressed so did work on the car as I gained more engineering skills. A tubular frame to attach the bodywork was made and I created a light tubular structure for the driveshaft tunnel, which extended to the front corners of the chassis, to add torsional stiffness. I had read somewhere that this is what Colin Chapman had done for his Austin Seven based Lotus Mk3.

By now I was driving my first car, an Austin Seven Ruby, on which the brakes were rather pathetic. To remedy this, on the special I converted the brakes to

FURI being driven by author at Hoopers Inlet hillclimb 1966

s 1966 The recently completed FURI at Nelson with the then 19 year old author. ▼ GMC dragster built and driven by Gerald Hoare 1961.

hydraulic operation using Morris Minor brake shoes which fitted the Austin Seven front, and Ford 8 rear, brake drums. The brake backing plates were modified to suit Morris wheel cylinders.

By August 1964 I had registered the vehicle, and with a daylight Warrant of Fitness was able to compete at a Hoopers Inlet hill-climb on the Otago Peninsula. The only bodywork was a temporary bonnet and radiator surround that was made from scrap perforated aluminium central heating panels used in commercial buildings. A friend called the car Meccano Set 101. As it was made using Ford and Austin parts I used letters from both names to register the car as FURI. At the hillclimb the little car was just a shade quicker than an Austin Healy Sprite, but these times were at the slower end of the field.

A few months later Cliff had the bodywork from the scuttle back completed, while I had fitted lights and cycle guards. This was in time for me to drive the car to Kaitangata and compete at a grass track meeting on a farm at Wangaloa. On the way the engine was found to misfire when working hard but this was cured by calling at racer Bob Scott’s Kaitangata garage where he gave me a replacement second hand fuel pump and helped me fit it. The car completed all the races but with a stock 24hp engine it was not very fast.

A little later Cliff loaned me his Ford Midget to compete in the beach racing at Nelson. This was New Year 1965. The performance of this car encouraged me to upgrade the FURI engine. A Ford 10 block was obtained which was rebored and the camshaft ground to a competition profile. With new pistons, using the crankshaft, cylinder head and other bits from the Ford 8 engine along with a couple of SU carburettors, we were ready for a Waitati hill climb held that March. Enthusiasm exceeded ability and the car nudged a bank on a tight corner which re-arranged the front geometry somewhat. I was still able to drive it home but the steering was a bit dodgy.

During repairs I thought that the car could be improved by using a swing axle front suspension similar to early Lotus and Buckler cars. A stronger Ford axle was cut in half, and by inverting the front spring mount on the Austin chassis a low pivot for this arrangement was achieved. This reduced camber change on corners compared to most of the vehicles which used this form of suspension. The steering had to be substantially modified and as the tie rods were now in front of the axle centre-line this resulted in the radiator also being mounted further forward. As a result the appearance of original style radiator surround looked wrong. This suited me as I preferred a more modern

appearance. Cliff relented and created a “Lotus clubman style” nose for the car.

While the body was being completed I talked Cliff into to selling me an aircraft cabin blower which he had and was unlikely to use. Fabricated brackets and manifolds for this were sent to a painter and were completed in time for another Hoopers Inlet hillclimb. It was fastest in the up to 1200cc class and was third overall. About eight weeks later, at Nelson for New Year 1966, the car started five races and gained a first and a third. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to participate in the race for the 15 fastest cars.

We were about half way through the main race on day one, when a lack of bump stops caused a rear radius arm to fail resulting in a damaged axle housing and a broken differential pinion shaft. Upon return to Dunedin I was given a ‘34 Ford V8 differential from which I used the centre section. This was convenient because the Ford 8 one was too low geared due to the additional power of supercharging the engine. I spent the rest of my annual holiday at my workplace fabricating an independent rear suspension setup using the Ford rear hubs and outer part of the axles.

I entered FURI for a Teretonga club day after attending to some rear suspension issues encountered at a Taieri Airport grass track meeting. This was the first time I had raced on a sealed race track. In practice the Ford V8 diff ratio was found to be too high when using the original Austin 16 inch wheels. I had fitted 13 inch wheels on the front and when these were swapped to the rear the gearing was spot on. The only down side was that these rims were quite narrow and the car over-steered to such a degree that a report of the event in Motorman mentioned the “spectacular driving style of Jim Bennett”.

The following year I competed with FURI at ten speed events carrying out improvements to engine cooling and fitted 13 inch wheels all round (with widened rims). I also purchased a close ratio Ford 10 gearbox from Bob Scott which made the car more competitive. It usually finished within the top four fastest times at gravel surface hill-climbs and was often the fastest car in the up to 1200cc class. It performed creditably at grass track races and a beach race meeting at Karitane with one win per day at a number of events.

By 1967 the engine was becoming quite worn so I built another using the best parts from my old motor and other bits from Cliff’s midget supplies. An engine block,

s Supercharged Triumph drag motor cycle of John Martin in action. The supercharger on the bike was previously fitted to FURI. This bike Is on permanent display in the transport section of the Otago Toitu

Early Settlers Museum.

▼ FURI being driven by author at Hoopers Inlet hillclimb 1966. ▼ Author driving Ford Midget Hoopers Inlet hillclimb 1967. (Allan Dick image)

which had been re-sleeved, was obtained for “the price of a jug of beer”. I ported the block and fitted larger inlet valves. Apprentice’s wages meant that corners were cut with consequences to follow.

Teretonga beckoned again and I was able to slip stream the fastback bodied Daimler SP250 of Eddie Lippart’s for several laps. I eventually overtook him exiting the Loop and promptly spun the car exiting the next corner because I was off the best racing line. The FURI did a 270 degree spin and stayed on the track ending up facing the correct way. We hadn’t lost too much speed so I was off after the Daimler again, but before I could get close there was a great whomp just as I was about to change gear. We were part way down the main straight with the engine doing 6,000rpm and it cried enough!

I had used the crankshaft and connecting rods originally from the Ford 8, along with used main bearings which I had shimmed to take up some slack. Removing the sump revealed that the crankshaft had broken into four pieces. Pistons and rods had flailed around creating mayhem inside. The motor had stopped so suddenly that the flywheel bolts had all sheared off. The block was ruined. Lesson learned.

A couple of months later I was required to do National Service in the Army, which curtailed my hobbies for several months. I competed with the Midget at a couple of events around this time. My five year apprenticeship was completed and the following year I married my girl friend Thelma. Subsequently family priorities and house ownership brought motor racing almost to a halt for the next 12 years.

The FURI, powered by a 100E engine, was still driven on the road occasionally and I eventually fitted it with a Vauxhall Wyvern engine, modified by using an MGB profile for the camshaft, twin SU carbs, re-machined and ported cylinder head etc. I loaned the car to Cliff and later a cousin for a time and they used it as a daily driver. Performance was about the same as the supercharged Ford and it was reliable.

The FURI was sold in 1973 to help finance the construction of a new house for us. Building and racing this car was great fun gaining me a lot of experience with both engineering and motor racing. A number of life-long friendships were made during this time. Skills acquired encouraged me to try again some time later to see if I could do better. But that is another story.

Footnote: This first FURI is still in existence. It was part of the Banks Peninsula Branch VCCNZ static display of vintage racing and sports cars at Ruapuna Skope 2021. It is currently undergoing restoration.