by Andrew Douglas

On the 31^st of January to the 7th of February 2009 the Otago Model Engineering Society or OMES had their yearly festival in Dunedin, New Zealand. During this time the car track and boat pond were back in full time use. The car track is one of two left in New Zealand, the other being in Blenheim. The track was built around 1951–1952 at the club grounds. At the height of its time there were around 10 members running cars of all types then dropping to two members until around 10 years ago, when one of the younger members Chris Kennedy got interested in the cars after watching Ken McIntyre, one of our yearly runners. Now we have around 5 members running cars. This year we were lucky to have a visitor, John Walker from Queensland, Australia bringing one of his cars with him. I’ll come back to him in a moment.

Ken McIntyre joined the club in 1953 just after the track was made at the age of 16. His first car was a home built special running a ED Racer diesel, most of the parts being made at home, the inside back wheel being the driving wheel. The top speed of the car was 30 mph. Ken has been running cars ever since, here in Dunedin or at his home base in Blenheim. Ken has 9 running cars at the moment ranging from 2.5cc to 10cc. His most famous car is his 10cc Rossi 60, which every one at the club has nicknamed 'the red car'. Built in 1976, the car has been running at our festival week just about every year. Its top speed this year was 108 mph. Ken has stated that the car will go faster but at the same time it could possibly destroy its self. Being a classic, it’s best just the way it is.

Ken McIntyre's 'Red Car'	Motor and gearbox of the 'Red Car'

Our guest John Walker came to run on the last weekend. He brought with him his 3.5cc hotrod car of German design. Top speed for the weekend was 94.75 mph. He should have been a lot quicker, but with the track having a few bumps and cracks he detuned the car for a slower speed. The top speed of the car is around 118 mph. John started with cars at the age of 16 in 1956. His first car was a Hornet 10cc Huntson design (Austrian) flat aluminium bed with a bevel gear box. John has 14 working cars from 2.5cc–10cc. Over the years John has held a few records and at one time his hotrod held the Australian record at 191k/h and at the moment is ranked 12^th for 10cc A grade speed of the year. John’s club in Australia has a membership of 14 running all types of cars. At the moment they have no track due to them being moved by their council for a new road. They hope to be running again soon. The other two runners of the week were Chris Kennedy and Gordon Rusbatch. They were both running copies of the hotrod John had brought over.

John getting ready for a run.	Ken McIntyre, John Walker, Gordon Rusbatch, Chris Kennedy	John's car on the run

At the boat pond we had the usual team running hydro’s, my dad Gary Douglas, and me, Andrew. The pond was rebuilt in the early 60's with an a split bottom with a few add-ons over the years. There’s never been that many members running hydro’s on the pond over the years, with the most at one time being 4 running 10cc boats in late 60's early 70's. Gary built his first airscrew hydro in 1972 called ‘Skip It’, running a 2.5cc Taipan. He then built ‘Skip It 2’ in 1976, still running a 2.5cc Taipan. ‘Skip It 2’ lasted until 1980 when it blew itself to bits at high speed. It was then rebuilt with some changes until about 8 years later when it once again fell on misfortune when a R/C boat went into its path, causing a big crash at speed to the great delight of the crowd watching. Dad was not a happy man, as his boat ended up in four pieces while the other boat had nothing but a small scratch. Dad had hit him square on the beam. The boat was once again rebuilt and is still going today.

	Andrew and Gary Douglas

During the week we did not get many runs in due to the weather. But when we did, we got some good times, about 75 mph for ‘Skip It 2’ and about 40 mph for ‘Skip It’. I have not got round to building my first hydro yet due to working overseas, but as soon as I get back for good it will be the first thing I do. I have managed to buy some second hand boats built in the 70's but I’ve never had them running well.

Well I hope that gives a wee bit of information of what we get up to in the deep south. As you can see, we’re still going strong and hope to keep it that way. If you would like more information about the club you can go to our club web page at www.omes.org.nz  or the club President Andrew Harbrow +64 34543169 email aaharbrow@farmside.co.nz
Boat group leader Gary Douglas +64 34767311 A.DOUGLAS1@xtra.co.nz
Car group leader Mel Kennady +64 34667372