In 1932 Jack Murray moved to Sydney, where he set up a service station in Bondi with his brother, Ray. Largely a taxi service and fix-it shop, the Murrays ran their business on either side of World War II, during which Jack served with the 2nd AIF.
The Redex fuel additive company started holding 1000-mile cross-country rally-style events around New South Wales called Reliability Trials, which eventually led to the first Round-Australia Trial in 1953.
In 1953 he rolled his car, and for the next years race, he chose, of all vehicles, a taxi.
A 7 year old Canadian-built 1947 Ford Super Deluxe with a flathead V8 and 75,000 miles as a taxi that he bought for 700 quid.
As Jack explained in an interview the car’s advantages were its generous ride height and advanced Houdaille shocks.
“It was a V8 and it had a lot of punch in it and it had the right springing, transverse springing; the front spring and the back spring transversed, and up very high. There’s a lot of clearance under a Ford, and they had a very strong chassis on ’em.
“We picked that one because they had [special] shock absorbers. Called a Houdaille, it’s a hydraulic shock and it’s a circular arrangement. They are French-designed, beautiful shocks.
“There’s no shock absorber that would last you ’round Australia; they hadn’t made any good enough yet. The body was better than the ones they make here – but the shocks were the main thing.”
In 1954 the taxi Jack named Grey Ghost won the Redex Round-Australia Reliability Trial. He led the race almost all the way around and somehow managed to get back without losing a single penalty point – a feat that was never repeated.
Smart man, Houdaille shocks were much loved by racers because they were adjustable. Packards and Studebakers had them as we'll.
ReplyDeleteI remember those Redex trials, in particular a celebrity (Possibly Jack Davey) prepared a car, took off and quickly discovered someone had forgotten to refill the gearbox with oil.
ReplyDeleteIn 1956 we rebuilt a flathead Ford V8 for a Hydroplane. bored it out, used alloy Offenhauser heads, double valve springs, Quad manifold with four Strombergs. Oh They were the days;
Thanks for the info! Do you still have any photos?
DeleteJack Murray's nickname was "Gelignite" :-)
ReplyDeleteHello again! I was thinking about you the other day, I haven't seen you i quite a while, and wondered if you were still going through the archives and if you were still finding them worth the effort
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