Next Attempt on Speed Record

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 7

Next Attempt on Speed Record

Capt. Campbell is JYow in South Africa Captain Malcolm Campbell is attempting to bid tor the world's laud speed record, and the Sir Charles Wakefield trophy on a dried up salt lake in South Africa. Recently Captain Campbell left for South Africa with his Napier Arrol Aster car, in which he hopes to regain the world’s land speed record and the Sir Charles Wakefield trophy. To do this he will have to attain over 231 rn.p.h. recently achieved by Major Segrave at Dayton,. driving his famous Bolden Arrov u / ig Wakefield “Castrol” motor oil. Contrary to the wishes of Captain Campbell, public interest in his attempt on the world’s land speed record is such that his plans have leaked out to some extent. It took him 17 days to reach Capetown. after which he had before him a 800-mile journey to Verneuk Pan a dried-up lake some 15 miles from the village of Brandvlei. No expense is being spared and apart from the cost of the car. a matter of several thousand pounds is involved. The famous racing car has been given the title of “Napier Arrol Aster.” being due to the fact that the chassis and body alterations were carried out by the Arrol-Johnson and Aster Engineering Co.. Ltd. It is reported that the course is as level as it is possible to find, the fall in the surface not being more than 1 in 10,000. Curious mirage effects are said to be witnessed on this dried up lake, so that blades of grass stick out like hushes, pebbles no bigger than matchboxes look like small hills, and posts two feet high assume th # proportion of telegraph poles. It is an extraordinarily dry area, the rainfall in nearly four years being only .5 of an inch. Facilities for transport are difficult, the nearest railway head being 75 miles away. Readers will recall that Captain Campbell left to beat the speed record of over 207 miles an hour put up hr Ray Keech. of America, at Daytona Beach in 1925. gaining for America the world's land speed record and the Sir Charles Wakefield trophy recently regained for England by Major H. O. D. Segrave at the stupendous speed of over 231 miles an hour. The credit for the discovery of Verneuk Pan rests with the ‘‘Cape Times,” as it was on the original survey made by that paper that Captain Campbell sent out a representative to inspect the site.