Topic: Solved NIC#141 - "Anzac" Australian speed record car of Norman "Wizard" Smith.

[nicanary]

What is this car? Please tell me the driver, the designer, the engine and the chassis base, all for one point.

[nicanary]

Experts? easy one.

[serra]

is it a land speed record car?

[nicanary]

is it a land speed record car?

It was used to achieve speed records in one country.

[serra]

European country?

[nicanary]

European country?

Not Europe.

[serra]

so it sould be from Northamerica

[nicanary]

so it sould be from Northamerica

Sorry, no.

[serra]

The car did not have many places to hide so, here it is: The ANZAC

 My source says:

 "Australia's Wizard Smith had Don Harkness Build ths car,the ANZAC ( Australia and New Zealand Army Corp.) . Based on a stretched Cadillac Chassis with Caddy gearbox ,brakes and diff!.  The engine was a 1922 18.7 liter Rolls Royce eagle, On loan from the Royal Australian Air force. The airforce kicked up a struggle when releasing it's already obsolete engine to the public and to prevent Smith from releasing it's "secrets " he had to sign all sorts of special agreements before he could get it. When it did arrive it was found it was a contra rotating engine!. Harkness had to build a transfer case to counter this."

Wizard Smith was the driver and Don harkness was the engineer and designer.

[nicanary]

The car did not have many places to hide so, here it is: The ANZAC

 My source says:

 "Australia's Wizard Smith had Don Harkness Build ths car,the ANZAC ( Australia and New Zealand Army Corp.) . Based on a stretched Cadillac Chassis with Caddy gearbox ,brakes and diff!.  The engine was a 1922 18.7 liter Rolls Royce eagle, On loan from the Royal Australian Air force. The airforce kicked up a struggle when releasing it's already obsolete engine to the public and to prevent Smith from releasing it's "secrets " he had to sign all sorts of special agreements before he could get it. When it did arrive it was found it was a contra rotating engine!. Harkness had to build a transfer case to counter this."

Wizard Smith was the driver and Don harkness was the engineer and designer.

Perfect answer. It established Australian speed records, but was not fast enough to challenge for the outright world LSR.

[nicanary]

I have found this photo of the car (supposedly in 1931) showing it fitted with a body which is clearly a copy of Segrave's  Golden Arrow. Smith set speed records in Australia in 1931 with the car in a completely different form, so I wondered why the body was not used - I know he had an argument, and litigation, with the car's designer, so maybe he was forced to alter the car.

[Allan L]

According to the piece on Smith in the Australian Dictionary of Biography by E.D. Daw:
Using a borrowed Napier seaplane engine, Smith and Harkness began building a better racer, the (Sir) Fred. H. Stewart 'Enterprise', named in honour of their sponsor. Delays occurred when they disagreed about its design and Harkness became ill. Their differences came to a head in New Zealand in December 1931, when Smith altered the car. Harkness began legal proceedings in Sydney, but later settled out of court.

That explains the cowling shaped for the Lion engine rather than for the V format Royce engine of ANZAC.
It is not helped by internet entries that do not recognise that ANZAC and Enterprise were different cars albeit both having various shapes of bodywork. The wheels were characteristically different between the two cars.

[nicanary]

I've just lost us all the chance of a new puzzle! I knew in my heart that there were obvious differences, but I didn't bother to research properly. The internet source quoted 1931 for both cars, so I made an inaccurate assumption.

Anyway - thanks for the help Allan. That's cleared that one up.