Marv’s Garage: Australia’s forgotten speed hero

Australia’s own Donald “Whitey” Harkness was an aero and automotive engineer working out of a garage in the Sydney suburb of Drummoyne. His home-built special, called Whitey, started life as an imported Overland and took out 50 events at tracks in Penrith, Maroubra and on Gerringong’s Seven Mile Beach.

Spurred on by a £50 trophy put up by the Daily Guardian paper for the first person to break 100mph in Australia over the measured mile, Harkness got hold of a Minerva chassis and an exotic Hispano-Suiza engine. On 17 October, 1925 he took the record at 108mph.

It was shortly after this Harkness was approached by noted racer of the time Norm “Wizard” Smith to build a new record-breaking car, the ANZAC. With a Rolls-Royce aero engine on a Cadillac chassis Wizard Smith set a new Aussie record of 128mph on the beach at Gerringong, topping 148mph on 90-Mile Beach in NZ.

With the backing of Sir Frederick Stewart (among others), Harkness then set about building a vehicle for Smith to attempt the Land Speed Record. The FH. Stewart Enterprise used a 1700hp Naiper engine out of a Schneider seaplane but problems popped up quickly.

While they broke the world record for the 10 mile stretch at 164mph (264km/h), an ugly public disagreement broke out between Harkness and Smith, allegedly surrounding changes to the cooling system. The Enterprise then caught fire and broke down in a run leading up to an attempt on the flying one-mile record, Harkness rage quit and Smith left to go home and sue the newspapers who said he’d chickened out of the record runs.

The Enterprise itself, Australia’s first really serious tilt at an LSR, disappeared. It was alleged to have been cut up and buried under Harkness’ garage, but as Whitey passed away in 1972 we’re unlikely to ever learn what really happened to this amazing machine.