JUST FAILED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 September 1935, Page 7

JUST FAILED

SPEED RECORD ATTEMPT Sir Malcolm Campbell Averages Slightly Under 300 Miles Hour HAD TO DRIVE BLINDLY STEAM AND EXHAUST FUMES United Press —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) Received 11 a.m. to-day. BONNEVILLE (Salt Flats), Sept. 3. •Sir Malcolm Campbell covered a measured mile ,in the Bluebird at an average of 301.311 miles per hour on the first run. He averaged 299.874 miles per hour for a mile and. the return. He made the first run in 11.53 seconds into the glare of the sun, with a slight favouring cross-wind, and the return in 12.1 S seconds. The return run was made against a slight head wind, which officials said accounted for the slower speed.

Guided by a black line oiled into the track, Sir . Malcolm Campbell steered the Bluebird with hardly a sway. He said that half-way through the measured mile on the return trip he drove blindly because steam and exhaust fumes flowed into the cockpit, and because the ventilator on the front of the car closed. He was forced to open the shutter and was pelted by a stream of salt, , When informed of his time after the second run, Sir Malcolm remarked: “For goodness sake; I’ve got to go through it all again.” Pressed whether he would make a second attempt, Sir Malcolm said: “Don’t bother me now; I’m a bit upset.” Later, however,, he announced he would make a second attempt on Wednesday. Sir Malcolm said the left front tyre blew out just ' after passing the measured mile on the first try. 1 ‘ It made a loud pop and I swerved out of line. I snapped the old lady back quickly and there was not much trouble in the run to the stop. “I was going around 300 miles an hour at times. The tyres were scorching hot; in fact, I burned my fingers on one of them.” Mechanics worked frantically to change the tyres while Sir Malcolm urged them on in order to complete two runs within the hour’s time prescribed on record attempts.

Because of the blowout, Sir Malcolm stopped more quickly and it cost him about half a mile on the getaway for the second run. He said he thought this was partly responsible for the lower speed in the second trip. COURSE SAFER THAN DAYTONA. ;Sir' Malcolm Campbell, holder of the world’s land speed record of 27G.S ni.p.li., is attempting to reach the 300 mark. The recent high speeds attained in long distance record drives by J. Cobb (England) and D. A. Jenkins (U.S.A.) evidently have satisfied Sir Malcolm that the flat hard-surfaced beds of the salt lakes in Utah promise a straightaway course, faster and safer than the Daytona Beach (Florida), which has been the scene of so many successful efforts at increasing tho world’s fastest land speed. Even as far back as 1903, Henry Ford ■covered a flying mile at 91.37 m.p.h. on the Daytona Beach with a sixcylinder car. Last {March saw Six Malcolm cover tho mile at three times the speed Ford attained on the same natural speedway 32 years ago. In connection with the attempt by Sir Malcolm to reach the 300 mile mark, two innovations are proposed, one to take a cinema film of the instrument board of the Bluebird with an automatic device, whilst the machine is hurtling across the lake bed at, a speed of nearly five miles a minute, and the other to film the distortion of the racing tyres whilst the machine i= travelling at'full speed. The results should be interesting and informative. As regards tyre distortion, data obtained when building and testing tyres for the ultra speeds attained by Sir Malcolm have shown the terrific- centrifugal forces that operate when the wheels of the Bluebird are turning at tho rate of 40 revolutions per second, equivalent to 400 feet a second.

In factory tests when the tyres were subjected to speeds up to 310 m.p.U. the tyre diameter increased approximately one inch at 250 m.p.li., despite the fact that the inflation pressure was 1251b5. per square inch. At 2SO m.p.li. the walls of the cover flexed at the rate of 2500 bendings a minute. The tension on the wire coil in each tread of cover at the latter speed, was approximately seven tons, as centrifugal force strove to tear the tyre from the rim.

Congratulations on Achievement (British Official Wireless.) Received 1.30 p.m. to-day. RUGBY, Sept. 3. The Minister of Transport, Mr Hore Belisha, and Lord Wakefield have telegraphed congratulations to Sir Malcolm Campbell on his great achievement. Lord Wakefield says that, in raising Die world land speed record to such an astonishing figure, “you have nobly upheld the high reputation of British engineering and have the earned admiration of motorists and sportsmen of all nations.’’