Chris, many thanks for that interesting description of how the apple
industry works down there.
Besides the gorgeous mountain landscapes and many other charms of NZ, I
have to remind everybody once again that Christchurch is the place
where, back in the Dark Ages, 1955, a privately-owned Vincent Black
Lightning took the official F.I.M. World's Motorcycle Speed Record at
185 mph. This was the immortal Burns & Wright team, two amateur
sportsmen, Bob Burns is gone now, but Russell Wright is still around,
and must be a marked man among NZ speed-trials enthusiasts.
In that era a local motor cycle club organized sporting events, and a
dead-straight ten-mile-long public road near Christchurch called the
"Tram Road" was allowed by the authorities to be closed for occasional
speed trials events. The club contained some certified F.I.M. Official
Timekeepers, and this is why it was relatively easy for the record to be
sanctioned and accepted by the F.I.M. back in Paris.
The Black Lightning was tuned by the fellows, and equipped with a
home-made fish-shaped streamliner body. This record represents the last
time the World Record was set by a mc with a conventional frame; after
that the cigar-like streamliner took over. Burns and Wright had been
building up their speed at like events for two years(also taking the
World Sidecar Record), but after this 185 mph blast down the two-lane
road, Russell said that was the last time, it was just getting too
narrow for that kind of speed. The next year they went to Bonneville,
but their greatest days were already behind them by then, and that's
another story! Cheers, Bill
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