RACING CAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 85, 4 January 1940, Page 8

RACING CAR

Seven-Ton Thunderbolt For Exhibition

Do MIN lON sPECI AL SERVICE. AUCKLAND. January 3.

Tin? most formidable piece of machinery ever constructed for sjK'ed on land. Captain George Eyslon's re-cord-breaking seven-ton racing car Thunderbolt lias been shipped to Auckland on its way to tie displayed at tiie Now Zealand Centennial Exhibition in Wellington. Packed in London in ir large ease, witli 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 Mahutr from the sliip to Central Wharf, where it was landed.

Powered witli two 1509 horse-power 12-cylinder Napier Rolls Aero engines, t he huge car, which will form part of an exhibit in the British Government Pavilion, covering the development of all forms of transport, was designed in 1937, and, driven by Captain Eyston on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, three times broke the world's record. Captain Eyston, who twice broke his own record, raised Hie world's record from 311.4 to 356.5 miles an hour, tiie latest figure being established in September, 1938. The record has since been raised by another Englishman, John Cobb, who, driving a Reid Railton car of only three tons, set up the present record of 368 miles an hour. The Thunderbolt will be railed to Wellington and assembled for exhibition.