THE robus NOTES with Keith

Rawsthorne

The highlight of our February meeting was guest speaker, Ray Fowler’s talk on the life and engineering feats of Dr Ferdinand Porsche. Ray is a Mechanical Engineer by profession and is passionate about Porsche cars and managed to obtain one in his retirement, only to have it stolen.

Dr Porsche was an Austrian Automotive engineer, whose first car produced in the 1800s was an electric vehicle. The batteries didn’t last long, so he fitted a petrol motor to drive a generator to power the car. Sounds like a modern hybrid.

Porsche also built a 16-cylinder motor which proved a great winner on the race track. He then moved to Volkswagen and became General Manager.

Guest speaker at our March 1 meeting was Raymond Haynes who spoke on his career in AstroPhysics.

Our Tour Director has returned and is in good health, so get organised for a trip to Bathurst (Railway Museum), Stuart Town for lunch, and a tour of the RFDS in Dubbo.