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From the surname of the Argentinian motor-racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio (1911-1995), the colloquial Australian-English word fang:
– as a noun, designates a high-speed drive in a motor vehicle;
– as an intransitive verb, means: to drive at high speed in a motor vehicle;
– as a transitive verb, means: to drive (a motor vehicle) at high speed.
In extended use, the word fang refers to any high-speed movement—cf., below, quotation 5 (where fang is used of horseriding), and the following from Digit multipliers breed like rabbits, by Matthew Abraham, published in the Hills & Valley Messenger (Port Adelaide, South Australia, Australia) of Wednesday 5th July 2000 [page 10, column 2], where fang is used of netball:
At this very second the ball came fanging back down our end of the court, followed by a blur of pleated skirts, red faces and bibs with their strange netball position codes—WA, GA, WD and so on.
These are, in chronological order, some of the earliest occurrences that I have found of the word fang derived from the surname of Juan Manuel Fangio:
1 & 2-: By the Australian playwright Alexander Buzo (1944-2006):
1-: From The Front Room Boys—as published in Plays (Ringwood (Victoria): Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 1970) [scene 1, page 20]:
GIBBO: Hendo’s early.
JACKO: I don’t know why he bothers getting here on time. If I were one of the back room boys, you wouldn’t see me here before noon. I’d be down by the pool or out for a fang in the Jag. Or I’d be on the deck of a yacht with a bird in the raw.
2-: From Rooted—as published in Norm and Ahmed, Rooted, The Roy Murphy Show: Three plays by Alexander Buzo introduced by Katharine Brisbane (Sydney (New South Wales): The Currency Press, 1973) [Act 1, scene 3, page 36]:
I tell you what, why don’t we go for a swim?
(Pause.)
Let’s hop in the B and fang up to the beach. We could go up the coast and down an ale at the Arms.
The following explanations are from Notes and Glossary, appended to Norm and Ahmed, Rooted, The Roy Murphy Show: Three plays by Alexander Buzo introduced by Katharine Brisbane (Sydney (New South Wales): The Currency Press, 1973):
[page 135]: B (colloquial), an M.G.B., the ‘B’ model of the M.G. sports car.
[…]
[page 137]: Fang, to drive a car fast and in an aggressive manner.
3-: From a review of The Chain Reaction (1980), an Australian film directed by Ian Barry (born 1946)—review by Dougal MacDonald, published in The Canberra Times (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia) of Friday 3rd October 1980 [page 14, column 5]:
The action takes place over what Larry (Steve Bisley) and Carmel (Arna-Maria Winchester) intend to be a quietly dirty weekend in the bush. Instead, it becomes a dirtily violent weekend, offering opportunity for Bisley to fang up and down a stretch of dirt road in a customised ute, hotly pursued by a limousine full of heavies.
4-: From Behind the Bidwell riots, by Kathy Lette, published in The Bulletin (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Tuesday 10th November 1981 [page 43, column 3]:
Recreation for the older kids, who’ve graduated onto wheels, is to go “cruising.” “We pick up sheilas, get drunk, steal cars, fang ’em (drive them fast) . . . anyfink!” I crammed in with five young boys to “burn some rubber.”
5-: From the column Uncommon sports for the common man, by Tony Burchill, published in The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Monday 11th January 1988 [page 24, column 6]—Bill Viney was running a horseriding establishment:
Be warned that horseriding to Mr Viney and to the reputable trail ride establishments doesn’t mean “a quick fang around the bush by city cowboys”.
Indeed, this urban cowboy felt decidedly uncomfortable fanging through mountainous terrain clinging for dear life to the mane of my black steed; the well-named Othello.
6-: From the column Finely tuned, by Alan Kennedy, published in The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Thursday 20th April 1989 [Style section: page 5, column 2]—Guido Moch was Daimler-Benz’s chief test driver:
Last year, I had a quick fang around the track with Guido and then drove on a skid pan while he switched a new traction-control device on and off.
He remained calm while we spun out of control across the wet track.
7 & 8-: From the column Motorcycling, by Steven Corby, published in The Canberra Times (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia):
7-: Of Friday 22nd April 1994 [page 22, column 3]—the following is about Kawasaki’s ZX-9R Ninja:
A quick fang around the occasionally used former Sutton driver training-centre-cum-racetrack gave the bike another chance to display its awesome power.
8-: Of Friday 11th November 1994 [page 22, column 2]—the following is about Yamaha’s YZF-750R:
A few breaks in the tempestuous conditions on Monday provided a chance to give the bike a bit of a fang, and the wait was worthwhile.
9-: From an article about the Australian racing driver Mark Webber (born 1976) and the Australian Rugby-League player David Furner (born 1971)—article by Bevan Hannan, published in The Canberra Times (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia) of Friday 1st September 1995 [TV and radio—Sport section: page 4, column 1]:
If you listen to Furner, he could well have been responsible for infecting Webber with the desire to speed.
“I use [sic] to own a little [Mazda] rotary and use to fly up and down his street. He might have got the bug off me.”
Webber reckons Furner was always a “rev-head”.
“That was my alarm every morning when he would start it up,” Webber recalled. “He use to ‘fang’ down to our house then back off past our house so my parents wouldn’t dob him in. And then he would give it to it again.”
10-: From Get out of the bunker, by Tony Squires, published in The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Friday 1st December 1995 [Metro section: page 31, column 1]:
Once you get into the game, enjoy some great public courses in Sydney, from Moore Park to The Coast, and St Michaels at Long Bay. These last two are a little difficult as they hug the ocean cliffs and golf balls are naturally drawn to water.
Given that, you could just fang out to Panthers in Penrith, hand over $5 for a bucket of balls and slam them into the little dam. There are prizes for hitting targets. You won’t be able to hit those, of course, but you’ll get a strange satisfaction from deliberately dunking the golf ball.
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