Kidston was next reported as saying, “I had thought of entering, but I did not do so.” By now the Vega was rather outmoded anyway. Kidston was keen to buy a Lockheed Altair, a low wing monoplane with retractable undercarriage, powered by a 500hp Pratt & Whitney radial engine, identical to Amelia Earhart’s entrant in the race and VH-USB, Kingsford-Smith’s Lady Southern Cross lost off the Andaman Islands on 8th November 1935.
Kidston planned to buy an Alfa-Romeo (probably the 8C 2300 that Earl Howe had driven with Tim Birkin at Le Mans in 1932) to take part in the Melbourne Centenary road race, but it was cancelled. He eventually decided to ship his Gipsy Moth on the Marama in September 1934 to take part in the festivities only. Diomede was conveniently in Sydney at the time. His plane returned to Wellington on the Monowai on 12th November.
A month later, Kidston crashed the Mercedes SSK returning to Auckland from a
