BREAKING SPEED RECORDS

Southland Times, Issue 23740, 11 February 1939, Page 18

BREAKING SPEED RECORDS

Importance Of Motor Racing

PRESTIGE AND PROFIT Two recent outstanding achievements, the magnificent flight from Ismailia to Port Darwin, Australia, of the three Wellesley bombers, and Major Gardner’s astonishing small-car record of 1861 m.p.h. on the Frankfurt autobahn, have emphasized once more the very great propaganda value of record performances, says a writer in The Sunday Times. We hear so much of the performances of aircraft and cars from other countries that we in Britain almost develop an inferiority complex and credit our Continental friends with the ability, to build and to pilot cars and aircraft much better than we can. How much more, therefore, must the peoples of the world as a whole jump to the conclusion that because, say, Russia held the world’s non-stop flight record, her engineers had technical knowledge superior to ours and her pilots were more experienced in navigation. Again, they might consider and do consider, that since Germany produces the fastest road-racing cars in the world and can find men to drive them brilliantly, German engineers know more about motor-car design than 'we do and German drivers are possessed of more skill, pluck and dash. ASTONISHING THE GERMANS The flight of the R.A.F; Wellesleys with their Bristol Pegasus engines : demonstrated to the whole world the I superiority of all-British aircraft and their pilots, and Major Gardner’s astonishing performance on the little 1100 c.c. M.G. Magnette shook even the Germans who timed him, used as they are to extremely high speeds being reached on the road. At the annual dinner of the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club Baron von Falkenhayn (who had seen Gardner set up the new record in the morning, before he flew over to England in the afternoon) described graphically the amazement with which the German timekeepers and officials regarded' Gardner’s speed. Baron von Falkenhayn was driving to the Frankfurt airport when he found himself stopped by officials, who stated that the special motor road was closed for record attempts. He watched Major Gardner make his run, that in one direction being timed at no less than 194.386 m.p.h. Whereupon the German timekeepers and officials rushed round in small circles checking their stopwatches, looking over the electrical timing apparatus and making calculations in their pocket books. “It’s impossible! It’s impossible! they kept on repeating. “What’s impossible?” asked the Baron. “The Major’s speed,” was the reply; “it is not possible for a car of only 1100 c.c. to put up such a. speed!” So to convince them Major Gardner was obliged to repeat his record attempt all over again, and in the process put up an even higher speed than on his first attempt. The M.G.’s speed of 186.567 m.p.h. is the fastest international record speed for all cars up to three litres capacity. WHAT IT MEANS

Now it is often asked what is the value of racing and record breaking on land, on water or in the air. It is easy enough to advance technical reasons, for the race-track or the longdistance flight are better than the finest test-bench in existence. Our reliable tyres, our front-wheel brakes, our efficient engines and transmissions are all due to road racing. Through having to meet the exacting demands of the drivers of Grand Prix racing cars, the makers of engines and chassis and accessories have had to produce something far better than that which until that time was considered adequate. A car or a component that has been tested in road racing will consequently stand up to any demands which the ordinary owner-driver may make on it. Apart from technical progress, however, record achievements of this kind have an enormous propaganda value. It was pointed out in The Motor that, following the German victories in South African motor racing, the sale of German cars in the Union of South Africa increased from about 500 to very nearly 2500 in the course of 1936-7. _ In the same period the sales of British cars declined from 6196 cars to 5930; that is to say, we did not hold our own. Anyone connected with motoring in South Africa will testify that German racing successes have not only directly influenced the sale of German cars, but that they have enchanced the prestige of Germany as a nation, and have improved her trading prospects in a wide field of engineering goods. GOOD PROPAGANDA Participation in International Grand Prix is subsidized by the Government in the totalitarian States, because its tremendous propaganda value is realized. The other day, when the Germans came over to Donington, the biggest crowd of spectators that has ever attended a motor race in Britain flocked tc the course. In France, in Italy, in South Africa, and even in the United States of America, the Germans have swept all before them in big motor races, and consequently there is a world-wide impression that German engineers are more clever, and German motor-car products better, than those of any other nation. It has been suggested in The Motor that the Government should contribute pound-for-pound, up to half a mililon, to the sums raised by the motor industry for a fund to produce and run a team of racing cars which could fight it out on equal terms with foreign competitors and hope for a fair share of success. A million pounds may seem a lot of money, but this might be expected to be such a magnificent advertisement for British engineering skill, not to mention the daring and skill of our drivers, that Britain would be looked up to all over the world as the home

of the finest machines and of the men with the coolest brains.

We have the brains, the men and the money; cannot they be harnessed together to demonstrate unmistakably the greatness of our technicians in the fields of motoring and aviation?