Land Speed Record, Part Two

The 1920’s; The British Take Over

World War One had naturally interrupted the quest for speed on land, but in its wake it had left great advances in internal combustion technology. The development of the aero engine, in particular, had huge implications on the course of the LSR.

Parry Thomas and Babs at Pendine in Wales

Despite having started the whole speed affair back in 1898, the French virtually abandoned pursuit of the LSR after the war. The Americans were always busy and captured and held the record for a year in 1928 – recognised internationally this time - but in the end, over the next 40 years, the LSR was the pride of one country alone; Great Britain.

Thomas attends to Babs' Liberty Aero engine

Kenelm Lee Guinness, of KLG spark plug fame, set the ball rolling for the British when he took his 350hp Sunbeam to 133.75mph (215.24kmh) in 1922. It was this car that was to launch the record-breaking career of possibly the most famous exponent of the LSR a couple of years later.

In 1924, the French had their last hurrah when Rene Thomas, driving a Delage, took the record at 143.31mph (230.62kmh). Six days later, Ernest Eldridge in his monstrous 21.7 litre FIAT, took it away from him with 146.01mph (234.97kmh). Then, at the end of 1924, Captain Malcolm Campbell, in the 350hp Sunbeam, broke Eldridge’s record by just a tenth of a second. He was off!

'The Slug', Segrave's 1000hp Sunbeam, under construction

It is interesting to note that, throughout the history of the LSR, it has always happened that there has been a great battle between two protagonists in any one era. In the 1920’s that battle raged between Campbell and his arch rival, Major Henry O’Neal De Hane Segrave, with a bit part played by J.G. Parry Thomas.
Whereas Campbell was to abandon the Sunbeam in favour of a self-constructed special, Segrave aligned himself to the company and its brilliant designer Louis Coatalen. Both men held the water speed record at one time or another, although Segrave held both the Land and Water speed records simultaneously, something Campbell never achieved.

The more scientific of the two American challengers; Frank
Lockhart and the V16 Stutz Blackhawk

In the 350hp Sunbeam, Campbell broke the magical 150mph barrier in 1925, recording 150.76mph (242.61kmh) at Pendine beach in South Wales. The Sunbeam’s aero engine displaced 18.3 litres, but the car that Sunbeam built for Segrave was a much more scientific design. Powered by a four-litre V12 supercharged engine, it developed more power than Campbell’s car but weighed half as much. With this car, Segrave snatched the record with a speed of 152.33mph (245.14kmh). But it was becoming clear that to go faster, more power would be needed and that meant only one thing; monstrous, belching aero engines in specialised chassis. Things were about to get interesting.

American Brute Force; The White Triplex Special,
powered by 3 Liberty Aero engines

Parry Thomas was a brilliant engineer but lacked the Campbell fortune and the Sunbeam company’s resources. Count Zborowski had built a car called the Higham Special to race at Brooklands. A 400hp, V12 Liberty aero engine drove the rear wheels via huge chains and was fitted into a custom chassis. After the Count’s death, Thomas bought the car because in it he saw the makings of a potential record breaker.
He set about modifying and re-engineering the car in his workshop at Brooklands and named the car Babs. At Pendine, Thomas blew away Segrave’s time and recorded 169.30mph (275.22kmh) only to go even faster the following day. But he knew that Campbell was preparing an all-new purpose built Bluebird and Segrave and Sunbeam were working on a new monster with not one but two aero engines. Time was not on Thomas’ side.

Over the winter of 1926 he modified Babs to improve its streamlining and, after Campbell had nudged the record to 174.88mph (281.43kmh), he hurried to Pendine just as Segrave was sailing for Florida and Daytona Beach with the impressive new 1000hp Sunbeam.

Feeling unwell, Thomas had worked up to 180mph when the car crashed violently and Thomas was killed. Grief stricken, his team dug a large hole in the sand and buried the car. It was exhumed years later and the cause of the crash was found to be a collapsed wheel and not a broken chain as had initially been thought.
As his car also used chains to transmit the power, Segrave was understandably nervous as he arrived in Florida but with the minimum of fuss that characterised his record attempts, he shattered the record and the 200mph barrier with 203.79mph (327.95kmh). Campbell was sporting in his congratulations but realised that to stand still in development was to be left behind. Work continued apace on Bluebird.

Golden Arrow, which took the record with almost absurd ease,
Segrave aboard. 

When Campbell sailed for America in 1928, awaiting him were two separate American teams with wildly different approaches. Ray Keech’s White Triplex consisted of three Liberty aero engines in a converted truck chassis. It was brutally simple and crude and sported only rudimentary streamlining. Frank Lockhart was a mechanical genius and produced the beautiful Black Hawk Stutz, a fully streamlined projectile powered by two supercharged Miller straight-eight engines linked to form a V16. Calculations suggested a top speed of 330mph.

When both hit problems, Campbell set a new record of 206.95mph (333.04kmh) and left for England. A month later Keech returned and set a new record of 207.55mph (334.01kmh). Lockhart also returned but when a tyre burst at over 200mph the car was pitched end over end and its driver was killed.

Campbell and Bluebird at Verneuk Pan

Whilst Campbell was struggling at Verneuk Pan in South Africa in 1929, Segrave sailed once more for Florida with the stunning Golden Arrow. With a single 930hp Napier Lion engine the fully streamlined car needed merely 20 miles of running to push the record up to 231.44mph (372.45kmh). Campbell had spent thousands of pounds on his attempt but Segrave’s new record negated every effort and he returned home disappointed to further modify Bluebird.

By 1931 the modifications were complete and now there was no stopping Campbell. But his great rival was gone. Whilst attacking the water speed record on Lake Windermere, his boat, Miss England II, hit a submerged log at speed and capsized, killing Segrave and a crew member. The way ahead was clear for Campbell.