THE NEW ZEALAND GRAND PRIX

July 7th 2014

THE Grand Prix of New Zealand, held at Ardmore Airfield, near Auckland, on a 2.1-mile circuit in the shape of an elongated figure of eight, drew a vast entry ranging from Grand Prix tars to production sports cars, driven by everyone from near-World Champions to ” local boys.” A contingent of cars and drivers from Britain journeyed out to the far shores of the Commonwealth and included Moss with his own 1954 Maserati Grand Prix car, Parnell with a single-seater Aston Martin from the factory, built around D133S components, Marr with his streamlined B-type Connaught fitted with a standard D-type Jaguar engine running on pump fuel, and Gaze and Whitehead with a brace of hybrid Ferraris. These were the cars they used last year in this event, being 1953 Formula 11 cars fitted with 3-litre Monza Ferrari engines. On their previous visit they had been normal sports engines running on pump fuel, but this time had been converted to run on an alcohol mixture, with a consequent increase in power output. Brahhant entered the rear-engined Cooper-Bristol that appeared in England during the 1955 season, and Su’man and Mackay had D1135 Aston Martins that. had competed in the 1955 European season. The race was held over WV laps of the aerodrome circuit and Moss had things more or less his own way, there being little in the way of opposition for either car or driver. In spite of his car suffering from a fuel leak, so that he had to stop and take on more fuel, he was able to win comfortably from the two Ferraris. The single-seater Aston Martin had mechanical trouble in practice and could not start, so Parnell borrowed Whitehead’s sports Cooper-Jaguar, which that driver bad with him to run in the sports-car event. In this.sports-car event, which was on handicap, Moss drove a borrowed Porsche Snyder and succeeded in finishing ahead of the aforementioned Coeper-Jaguar and also Gaze driving an II.W.M.-Jaguar. The XK120 Jaguar power unit is a surprisingly versatile engine, for apart from being used in staid saloons, it forms the basis of the power unit in the very powerful 1)-type Jaguar, is used in specialised sports cars such as the Cooper and the 11.W.M., and was also running in the

• Grand Prix fitted to an early Grand Prix Bugatti chassis.