LAND SPEED RECORD.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 14 July 1933, Page 16

LAND SPEED RECORD.

ITALY'S PREPARATIONS. AEROPLANE ENGINE TO BE USED.

[\ Now that Italy has won from Great .Britain the flying blue riband through the agency of Warrant Officer Agello, whose record speed of 423.76 miles an hour has been ratified officially, that country is reported to be turning serious attention to making a bid for the world's land speed record, which Great Britain has held for some years through the agency of Sir Malcolm Campbell. It is now about five years since Great Britain's hold on this classic record was challenged, and there is little doubt that if Signor Mussolini is intent on gaining the honour for Italy no effort will be spared to better Sir Malcolm's 272 miles an hour. The achievement of Agello, at Lake Garda, shows that Italy has the necessary super power unit in the supercharged 24-cylinder Fiat engine (Macchi type) used in the recent record flight, and it is that particular power unit which the Italians are now proposing to build into a special chassis for an attack on the land speed record. The engine develops 2900 brake horse-ppwer at 3200 revolutions a minute, while its weight of 20451b give a weight ratio of one brake horsepower for each ,7051b of metal. The cylinders are divided into two banks of 12, placed one in front of the other. There is a common crankcase, but each bank of cylinders has its own crankshaft, the two crankshafts rotating in opposite directions, coupled by spur gear reducing units driving two airscrew shafts, likewise rotating in opposite directions, and situated close together, one in front of the other. There is a common induction system from an eight-jet carburettor attached directly to a centrifugal supercharger at the rear of the engine unit and driven through a special clutch coupling, the main induction pipe being carried along the top of the engine. • Each bank of cylinders has two overhead camshafts. Four valves and two plugs are used for each cylinder, and c-ach 12-cylinder unit has its water pump and pair of magnetos. Compared with the power unit used by Sir Malcolm Campbell, a 12-cylin-der Rolls-Royce, developing 2350 brake horse-power at 3200 revolutions a minute, the Italian engine would provide an additional 550 brake horsepower for an increase of 4151b—the weight power ratio of Campbell's engine being ,6871b. Whether that extra power would be of any advantage is open to question, because Sir Malcolm found during his last effort at Daytona that he had ample power to have got close to the 300 miles an hour mark, the difficulty being to obtain sufficient grip on the beach sand with the back tyres to enable the huge power output to be effectively used.