The Greatest Achievement

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13309, 8 April 1941, Page 7

The Greatest Achievement

By E. .j. Appleby in “The Autocar”

900 m.P-h- with an 1,100 c.c. Car Straight Out o' er of Its Packing Case

„ is nOW twenty months since the P ak of war put an end to pro- °“ in design and achievement; n effort in this direction temsuspended we are able to ? °f hack across the years and see Tent and development in their prop■'.rr:- whcn we “ r a moment forget the present the post, and the company 13 on „ to be composed of sporting « may brl " g " P the ’ to which of the many achievements is considered to ne greatest. Personally I have aa hesitation in claiming Major Gol- . Gardner’s M.G. records of 1939 tie world’s greatest motoring achievement. Over 203 m.p.h. mean ‘j ,Ith an 1,100 c.c. engme, and 204 m.p.h. two days later with (le £ air.e engine bored out slightly bring it into another class! ‘ It was astonishing enough when in the previous November Gardner averaged 186 m.p.h. with the 1,100 c c M.G., and when he ventured to express an opinion that the little car yascapable of 200 m.p.h., there were tho3 e who thought him over-confi-dent, yet on May 31st, 19 39, it duly j passed the 200 m.p.h. mark, as he ta id it would. Furthermore, the enjine, after the 1,100 c.c. records had been taken, was rebored while still ia the chassis, and two days later t o ok the corresponding records in the li-litre class. Thus Major Gardner and the M.G. car have the signal honour of being the first to exceed 200 m.p.h. in both the 1,000 and 1,500 c.c. class. Has there ever leen an achievement to equal this? The scene of the records was the autobahn at Dessau, Germany; so great was the confidence of Gardner and his mechanics that it was decided to attempt the records withhold practice or trial; in fact the car ms not unpacked until the morning ol the attempt. On the run a cross md partly adverse wind caused the car to swerve; at 200 m.p.h. one does not have much time to correct skids, and it is mostly a question of

hanging on hare and hoping for the best. Gardner hung on, kept his foot down, and 200 m.p.h. was his. To appreciate fully what these records really mean one has only to realise that the engine, in size, was no larger than those fitted in many small cars, and, in my opinion, the value of the records is infinitely greater than that of the world’s maximum speed records. ! In recent years the maximum speed records have been secured with aero engines in machines which bear little, if any, resemblance to cars as used by the motoring public. I hail Gardner as the man to whom credit must be given for the world’s greatest motoring achievement. What do you think? Perhaps you think we should divide such history-making events into two classes,- separating the engineering achievements from those which are more akin to motoring. Although the M.G. records include the personal effort, and no one would wish to rob Major Gardner of his share in the occasion, it is as an engineering achievement that we still stand amazed. When we take a quick glance through the pages of motoring history, the late H. E. Symons’ epic drive to the Cape on his 18 h.p. Wolseley must stand high in our esteem. In spite of dropping off a 30ft. bridge into a river, and in spite of the fact that the car was immersed for twenty-four hours, he carried on for over 3,000 miles and succeeded in breaking the London to the Cape record.

Then there was the great Le Mans Race in 19 27 when S. C. H. Qavis and Dr. Benjafield drove a badly damaged car to victory—and we think of the Paris-Bordeaux race and that great Pekin-St. Petersburg affair in years yet further back. But I still give Major Gardner’s M.G. records pride of place in motoring history, or, if you would have it so, in the history of motor engineering.