SPEED RECORD

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 11 June 1932, Page 7

SPEED RECORD

EXPERIENCES AT DAYTONA

SIR, MALCOLM CAMPBELL’S ACHIEVEMENT.

Writing in the “Field” recently Captain Sir Malcolm Campbell said that he had not had the best of luck with the weather and the beach when he established a new record this year at Daytona.

• Campbell pointed out that it was essential, when driving at such a. tremendous speed, that conditions should be absolutely perfect, if the best performance from the car was to be obtained. “I should like to explain why perfect conditions are so necessary, and how the wind affects the state of the beach from day to day,” lie said. “First of all, it will be obvious to everyone that the surface of the track must be dead smooth, hard,»' and perfectly dry. ’ Unevenness of any kind will te'nd to make the car leave the ground, and it may jump as much as 40ft or 50ft before touching the ground again. If the beach is covered with ripples,- left by the outgoing tide, this will set up wheel spin, because the back tyres will not be able to obtain proper adhesion. If the sancl is wet, this also may set up wheel spin, not to mention the absorption of much power, since the tractive effort required to overcome the extra resistance as ■ compared with a dry surface is much greattr. “Wind’ is onother very serious factor,”' Sir Malcolm Campbell continued, “for if it is blowing obliquely or at right angles 'it may force the car right off' its course when travelling at really high speed, the danger obviously increasing with the velocity of the wind. If, however', the wind happens to be blowing straight down the course, and the car is'travelling with it, the driver will gain in speed not more than onethird of the wind’s velocity; but when he turns and heads into the wind he will lose about three-quarters of the speed of the wind. In other words, if the wind is blowing at 40 miles per hour the car will probably have an increase in power of about 13 miles per hour when travelling with it, but will lose a good 30 miles per hour when going in' the opposite direction. It will be' seen, therefore, that wind of any description is most undesirable, and that a perfectly still day is necessary to enable the best performance to be obtained from the car.

“A clear day with good visibility is, of course, the best," but not absolutely necessary. ’ I have found that in nine days out of ten there is a thick haze hanging over the beach at Daytona, which often limits one’s visibility to 1090 yards, and sometimes to much less than that, and when one is travelling at the rate of over 130 yards per second this does, sometimes, present certain difficulties. FORWARD VISION. “Last year, I so well remember, my forward vision was restricted to approximately 250 yards—-in other words, 1 could only see about two seconds ahead of the car.. This. 1 admit, was decidedly unpleasant, and it required a certain amount of determination to carry on under such conditions. The course at Daytona, however, ‘is marked out by flags over its entire length, and one drives entirely by-these. I usually steer the car about eight yards away from the"'

“Bad atmosphere conditions are, to my mind, far more serious than imperfect visibility, because if the air is heavy or hot it is quite likely that it may mean a loss of as much as 50 h.p., or. putting it another way, the power of the engine may be down by approximately 3£ per cent. To obtain the best results from the motor the day should be cool and brisk. I have often been asked why it is that the beach at Daytona is apparently usually so uneven, and what are the necessary v

conditions that will smooth it out and make it safe for high-speed driving. LIKE OTHER BEACHES. “The beach at Daytona is really not different from any other, and I should say that it presents absolutely perfect conditions only about one or two days in a hundred, but . that, with luck, fairly good conditions can be expected for about one or two days in every month, and this is most likely to occur round the. full moon period, or, in other words, at spring tides. At Daytona a really stiff north-easterly breeze is required, and this wind pror duces a big surf which in turn pounds the beach and evens it up. It is the receding tide that does the damage, and here again it is due to the angle at which the wind blows on the waves as the tide goes out. “Often as not, when the north-easter lias done its work and flattened out the beach, the wind does not die down altogether for many days, and this again presents a great difficulty. We may have a perfectly' smooth beach.

but there is a strong side wind blowing which makes driving at high speeds very difficult, and adds considerably to the risks involved. .. “During my last visit to Daytona there was one day when the beach .was ideal; there was no wind, the visibility' was perfect, but it poured with rain, which made driving impossible,” wrote Sir Malcolm Campbell in conclusion. “If it is not one thing it .is another that spoils one’s chances, and to have ideal conditions the driver requires a very large slice of luck.”