TEST OF FIRST JET CAR

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26059, 11 March 1950, Page 7

TEST OF FIRST JET CAR

WOMAN DRIVES IN DEMONSTRATION

PRODUCT OF BRITISH COMPANY

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. A 58-year-old grandmother, Mrs Kathleen Wilks, drove the world’s first turbo-jet car in its debut yesterday, and her verdict was: “I’ve had more anxieties wheeling a pram than driving this car.” The jet car, produced by the British Rover Company, whistled along easily at 90 miles an hour in a demonstration before 200 British and American manufacturing experts.

Mrs Wilks, who has been driving since she was 15, is the wife of Mr S. B. Wilks, managing director of the Rover Company. She said: “It is an ideal woman's car. Even a child could run it with safety. All you do is work the accelerator and the brake. "There are no gears except for reversing, and it will be simpler still when it goes into production.” The jet car used paraffin fuel, but could also run on petrol or oil. When it started up there was a smell like an oilstove and a sound like the humming of a giant vacuum cleaner. Among the present drawbacks, fuel consumption at present is double that of piston-engined cars, a cloud of black smoke arose when the engine started, and a blast of very hot exhaust shot from the rear of the car. The car looked like an orthodox model, yet inside it was a travelling laboratory. The test instruments under the bonnet were secret, except to the firm's experts.