04/11/2023
WHO WAS SAMMY de BEER?
Through the 1920s there was one name that stood out from the rest in events run by the Otago Motor Club — Sammy de Beer. Not to be confused with the South African diamond family, the De Beers (with a capital D), Sammy’s Jewish forefathers escaped from Portugal during the crusades and then, via Germany, settled in England before emigrating to Queenstown in New Zealand during gold rush times. Along with other Jewish families, including Bendix Hallenstein, they were very successful in business. So much so, they gifted to the town, the peninsula which now forms the Queenstown gardens.
The families moved to Dunedin and remained both successful in business, joining forces with Willi Fels, and close friends.
The de Beers lived in a great bluestone mansion on Highgate in Roslyn that still exists today.
Before WW One, Sammy de Beer was sent to London to study engineering and got trapped there by hostilities, but got married before returning home where he got into “the trade” — the trade of importing and selling motor vehicles to the landed gentry.
He and his older brother August established premises in Great King Street, Dunedin where they imported and sold first Calcott cars and then Austins.
He became interested in racing as a means of publicising the cars and competed in both Calcotts and Austins before he imported a new and very special Austin Sports 20, two seater, high performance “sports car”.
This was one of a limited run of just 50 cars developed by Austin specialist engineer Felix Scriven who was a frequent driver at Brooklands.
The 3.6 litre engine had a special cam, cylinder head and carburetor, lightened flywheel, close ratio gearbox and a lengthed chassis.
Two of these cars came to New Zealand — the second was for Premier Sir Joseph Ward, so Sammy was in good company. Although not a racing car, it came with a book of instructions on how to convert it!
When the car arrived, Sammy had it rebodied with a more dramatic look including a long, pointed tail.
But he also had a secret weapon. There was plenty of talkaround Dunedin about Sammy using a “special fuel”, but he had fitted into the tail two bottles of compressed air connected to the fuel system. When he turned them on it acted as a sort of supercharger. Trying it out he turned on the compressed air as he left the Exchange heading up High Street. The Austin roared into life and shot up the hill at a great rate. But the compressed air didn’t last long and when it ran out and resumed “normal pace” he was pulled over by a motorcycle cop who was astounded by the speed he had just witnessed and wanted a ride!
Sammy had great success with the car at hillclimbs and beach racing, taking it as far as Muriwai near Auckland.
Sammy employed a young Dunedin lad to help in the workshop and assist with the Austin – his name was Les Nye who later founded Auto Ignition and had a long and illustrious career with both the Dunedin motor industry and local motorsport competitors.
In 1927 Sammy loaned the car to prospective buyer Albert Sayer to compete in a beach race at Oreti. But Les Nye over-pressurised the fuel tank, petrol leaked onto the exhaust and the car caught fire and had to be pushed into the sea to extinguish the flames.
History doesn’t record if Sayer bought the Austin, but it disappeared in the mid thirties.
Meanwhile, unknown to Sammy, his brother August had made some unwise financial decisions which pushed the car business to the brink. Hearing of this, Austin of England cancelled the franchise and gave it to Cossens and Black!
Sammy was near retiring age by now and being a clever engineer, he retired to the workshop at his Gamma Street home and took on a wide variety of engineering work.
Not only were the de Beers and the other Jewish families — the Haldenstein’s (Hallstead’s) and the Fels — beneficial to Queenstown, but also that work continued on when they came to Dunedin. Their contributions to many great Dunedin institutions in the first half of last century was significant.
Obviously the love of cars and engineering ran in the family. Many years later, in the early seventies, a regular competitor in Otago Sports Car Club events in cleverly engineered cars was Graham “Scruff” Dickson — Sammy de Beer’s maternal grandson.
