22-11-2019, 12:09 AM
A little off the subject, but a friend in Western Australia (who has about 5 Sevens, including a blown racing one) decided to put together a replica stripped '29 Chummy to compete at the recent Perkollili historic races. The circuit is 40k East of Kalgoorlie which itself is over 4 hours drive from Perth. Racing there commenced in 1905 and in 1931 a Neil Baird stripped his '29 Chummy of mudguards, lights, and just about everything else to compete there. Hugh Fryer's recreation of Baird's car this year did over 50 laps of the 2.6 mile circuit, not all in his own events but (a) he loaned the Chummy to an English visitor, who had blown a huge hole in his Lagonda's block, to also compete all weekend and (b) for others (including me) to do laps before and after each day's festivities. Hugh's daily-use sports, which he had brought with him from New Zealand many years ago, also did over 50 laps in practice and events driven by Hugh's partner Nicole. The circuit is a huge bowl of Red Dust (the lake dried up 1600 years ago) but Hugh was able to get around averaging about 70 mph. This prompted one competitor to write in a suburban newspaper that the Austin Seven was fitted with a v-8 engine and had rocks in the back to hold it down! Ridiculous. Cheers, Bill in Oz