RECORD-BREAKING CAR

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22909, 4 January 1940, Page 6

RECORD-BREAKING CAR

THE THUNDERBOLT TO BE SHOWN AT EXHIBITION [THE PRESS Special Service] AUCKLAND, January 3. Captain George Eyston's recordbreaking seven-ton racing car Thunderbolt is now in Auckland on its way to be displayed at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition. Packed in London in a large case, with the removable parts in another case, the Thunderbolt arrived in a British steamer from New York, and was carried by the Harbour Board's floating crane Mahua from the ship to the central wharf, where it "was landed. Powered with two 1500 horsepower 12-cylinder aero engines, the huge car, which will form part of the exhibit in the British Government pavilion covering the development of all forms of transport, was designed in 1937 and, driven by Captain Eyston on the Bonneville salt flats, Utah, three times broke the world's record. Captain Eyston, who twice broke his own record, raised the world's record from 311.4 to 356.5 miles an hour, the latest figure being established in September, 1938. The, record has since been raised by another Englishman, John Cobb, who, driving a R'eid Railton car of only three tons, set up the present record of 368 miles an hour. The Thunderbolt will be railed ta Wellington and assembled for the exhibition. -