AMAZING SPEED

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 82, 31 December 1926, Page 9

AMAZING SPEED

ATTAINABLE BY NEW MOTORCAR CHRISTENED “MYSTERY S” 200 MILES AN HOUR BY TELEGRAPH.-PRESS ASSOCIATION Copyright. , (Rec. December 30, 8.15 p.m.) London, December 29. Early in January an amazing motorcar, already christened “Mystery S,” will be conveyed from locked and guarded workshops at Wolverhampton for a test by Major H. O. D. Segrave, for whom it was constructed. The car is unlike anv other car in the world, and is capable of a speed of 200 miles an hour. It has two separate engines of 500 horse-power 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 three-speed gearbox in the centre of the chassis. The forward engine is started by compressed ait*, and when running the driver starts the other from it through a slipping clutch. When the revolutions synchronise the engines are 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 directional stability. If the car swerves the slightest degree from the straight when travelling at a rate of 200 liiiles an hour, the immediate tendency is for the whole car to spin round and round on its own axis. Owing to there being no place m England where the terrific speed is attainable, the car will be shipped to America, to attempt a world recordbreaking performance on Daytona Beach, Florida, in February.