'MYSTERY' MOTOR-CAR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 10808, 31 December 1926, Page 5

'MYSTERY' MOTOR-CAR

SPEED OF 200 MILES AN HOUR.

RACING DRIVER'S LATEST. (Per Press Association—Copyright). LONDON, December 29. Early in January an amazing motorcar already christened "Mystery S," will be conveyed from locked and guarded workshops at Wolverhampton for test by Segrave, the well-known racing driver, for whom it was constructed. It is unlikely that any other car in the world will be capable of equalling its speed of 200 miles an hour. It has two separate engines of 500h.p. each, one just aft of the front axle, and the other vertically over the rear axle. The power of both engines is transmitted to a common threespeed gearbox in the centre of the chassis. The forward engine is started by compressed air, and when it is running the driver starts the other from it through a slipping clutch. When the revolutions synchronise, the engines ar coupled up as one unit and set the car in motion in the ordinary way through another clutch and gearbox. There are three cooling radiators. An exhaustive test resulted in many alterations. One of the most tremendous problems is the securing of directional stability. If the car swerves the slightest degree from the straight at 200 miles am. hour the immediate tendency is for the whole car to spin round and round on its own axis. Owing to there being no place in England where such a terrific speed can be attained, the car will be shipped to America: to attemptl to break world records lon Dayton Beach, Florida, in February.