Matilda beaten
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Sponsored jointly by IranSpec, Edbro distributors in Australia, and Thermo King, Super Boss went to Australia to do battle in the indigenous drag racing. More than 30,000 spectators came from all over Australia, hoping to see Waltzing Matilda show Super Boss where it got off.
Matilda is basically a Ford with Caterpillar 636 CID engine but with a Rolls-Royce Avon aero engine mounted at the rear. It can reach 140mph in a quarter mile in 9.8sec and is halted by air brakes and four parachutes. If was designed, built and tested in six weeks, if you please, by Re-Car Consolidated Industries and T. O'Hare.
Although Matilda waltzed up to 110.56mph, the fastest speed recorded that day, Super Boss won easily and gained a challenge trophy presented by Ford.
Transpec believes that, just as racing has benefited private car design, so it can bring advances in commercial-vehicle technology and safety. That was one of the reasons for sponsoring an event that made the final of the Commercial Motor Lorry Driver of the Year Competition look like a pie-eating contest.