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1894 drawing of an early Australian Automobile In 1894, the Australian Coachbuilder and Saddler publication claimed that they had not heard of any Australian Automobiles being built. However, they claimed there were several in the ‘minds’ of inventors. Mr. W Southhall of Goulburn NSW had given the public evidence of his ingenuity as a maker of vehicles and had been ‘engaged’ on the problem three or four years ago, when he devised a vehicle which looked tolerably promising on paper.  Mr. E. E. Klap of Sydney, had a much more perfect plan than Mr. Southall but had not made even a...

The year is 1939 and in November the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition opened in Rongotai, Wellington. One of the main attractions was “Thunderbolt”, the Land Speed Record car driven by Captain George Eyston.

Let’s first back track a few years earlier to 1935. Malcolm Campbell had just become the Land Speed Record (LSR) holder and the first man ever to drive faster than 300mph. At Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah he achieved a speed of 301.129 mph.