Kerry Cox aka the Purple Petrol Eater

[Oldtony]

Kerry passed away on the 13th of November after a long battle with illness.
Kerry was well known in racing in both Tasmania and Queensland, a great driver and a tallented and ingeious engineer.
You can read some of his exploits in Tasmania in the 10/tenths History section under Purple Petrol Eater which covered his Paramount Ford and Paramount Jaguar days.
After moving back to Queensland Kerry had a motor engineering business in Maroochydore. He aquired the Ex Dick Johnson LJ XU1 and campaigned it very effectively, winning the Queensland touring car championship.
The Torana was a great car, but I think in Kerry's eyes suffered from the disadvantage that he didn't actually build it himself.
After the Torana's disposal he built a very pretty 202 powered Gemini Sports sedan. Made the mistake of not painting it purple. After a minor off at SPIR it was bogged in a ditch with Kerry sitting on the bank when a Chev Monza somehow finished up parked on top of, it effectively writing it off.
The replacement certainly had some purple in it's paint scheme and was developed into a very effective package. Charlie Senese caimpained when Kerry on sold it to spend more time on veteran cars.
The 1908 Wolesley that Kerry rebuilt was a thing of beauty, an finished up being returned to the UK.
A quiet, reserved sort of bloke out of the car, a forcefull and spectacular driver, Kerry was a bit of a genius in finding the quick, simple and effective soloution to an automotive engineering problem
Don't make many like that! A lot of us will miss him.