AT 200 MILES PER HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 25 June 1927, Page 14

AT 200 MILES PER HOUR.

MAJOR SEACRAVE’S IMPRESSIONS. EFFECT OF WIND PRESSURE. At a luncheon recently given by the Royal Automobile O.ub ot England to Major it. O. D. segrave, who aehieveu tne wontlerrui speed of over 200 miles an hour with ms IOUOh.p. .'Sunbeam, lie was prevailed upon to tell his own story ot what it felt like co drive ai, suen a speed.

Tie isaict iris iir.st impression yas that the wind pressure aas something colossal, ire put hi® head out of the side oi the ear only align try, and lie had a .stioam-lmed ueimet. In an instant Ins helmet was ne a r y pulled olf and the double straps under hi® cbm neatly strangled him. in a preliminary run the air. scoop on the scuttle was found to be totally inadequate, as so great was the pressure of the wind tnat it was a .physical 'impossibility to see anything, ami iiis close-fitting goggles were violently vibrated 'against ms eyes. An additional ,steei wind scoop was fitted, so that the wind pressure was taken light above ids head.

At the end of his first trial he put on hjiis brakes. Nothing seemed to nappen; na put them on a bit harder ior a mi l e, and still it seemed ns it tire speed was hardly reduced; lie put hi® foot right down, and the brake pedal fell on the floor boards. When eventually the car stopped he found that the. aluminium shoes had absolutely fused, an almost incredible thing, in triai runs they burnt up ail the brake shoes, and for the actual record attempt they had to patch them up the best they could, a® spare parts could not be obtained in time. The record, it wn.l be remembered, has to be made in two directions' to pass a world’s record. At the end of the outward run he applied the. brakes with very little effect, and the car had run four miles and was still doing 100 miles per hour. A quarter of .a mile ahead there was a river and the sea, and the only thing to do was to run into the sen, which he reached at a s|>eod still of 50 m.p.h. The sea cushioned the shock, clouds of spray rose over the car; the water was only 3ft. deep, it turned the ear round <?o that he was able to make the return without stopping the engine. During the .return run a gust of wind at only 18 miles per hour .swept sideways across the track. In a fraction of a second the car was blown off the course. It seemed to be bodily carried to one side towards the sea. Instincttively he steered out of it, and got half a lock on the 1 steering without making any appreciable difference to the direction in which he was being blown., with the result that he cut down three of the flags, which were 100 yards apart, 'before regaining; control. So engrossed was he upon thinking of getting the car .straight that he never once thought of taking his foot off the accelerator.

Segrave’.s opinion was l that for such record attempts practically direct steering was necessary. During the record there wag absolutely no audible sound whatever of the engine, but only the intense howling of the wind. Segrave paid a great tribute to Ca.pt. Irving, of the Sunbeam Co. He was responsible for carrying out the design of the car. and n.s far back as March of .last year lie was the only man who thought the car. which then exioted on mner, would achieve a speed of 200 m.o.h. Segrave hint-elf did not think it could be done.

| About tiie course, he .said that he j did not believe that sand anything like it exists anywhere else in the world. Jt made a track of about 500 ft. wide just like concrete, and about 23 miles in length and normally this wonderful course (Davtona Beach) is covered by a huge crawling mass of ears. On the actual day of the record there were many hundreds of police, both on foot and on motor-cycles, and a squadron of cavalry to keep the course clear, and from 7.30 .in the morning until 11.30 a.m., when the record had been acconili.shod, not one single person stepped foot on the sands, although there were 25.(MM) people" present. After the record lie had nothing left. He lo.st his goggles, his hat and people were even taking lumps of tyres a«s souvenirs. Segrave leniaiKecl that we have no oonce]>Lion of the enthusiasm in America for a record attempt of this nature. The American Contest Board, un immensely wealthy body of skilled engineers, all highly paid men, ,set an example of efficiency not equalled in England. As an instance, during one of his trial runs there were men posted all along the course with; telephones to announce one to the other a.s the car passed, so that when he turned round at the end of the run lie was met by a mounted policeman, who gave him the average time.

One of the most astonishing things about the record was the fact that, it was obtained on the first serious attempt, without a single failure in the car, or any of the parts supplied for it. The failure of a single sparking .'.lug winld have thrown the twin engines out of balance and might have had cerions consequences, hut there was no -such failure.