MYSTERY MOTOR-CAR

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1926, Page 13

MYSTERY MOTOR-CAR

BRITISH FIRM'S DESIGN TWO SPECIAL ENGINES SPEED TRIALS IN AMERICA By Telegraph—Tress Assn. —Copyright. Received Dec. 30, 8.15 p.m. London, Dec. 29. Early in January, an amazing motor-car, already christened ’Mystery 5.,” will be conveyed from locked and guarded workshops at Wolverhampton, for a test by. Mr. Scgrave, for whom it was constructed. It is unlike any other car in the world, is capable of a speed of 200 miles and hour, and has two separate engines of 500 horsepower each, one just aft of the front axle and the other vertically over the rear axle. The power of both engines is transmitted to a common 3-speed gearbox in the centre of the chassis. The forward engine is started by compressed air, and, when running, the driver starts the other from it, through a slipping clutch. When the revolutions synchronise, tb e engines are coupled up as one unit, and set the car in motion in the ordinary way, through another chitch and gearbox. There are three cooling radiators. An exhaustive test resulted in many alterations. One of the most tremendous problems is directional stability. If the car swerves the slightest degree from the straight when travelling, at any rate near two hundred miles an hour the Immediate tendency is for the whole ear to spin round and round on its own axis.

Owing to there being no place in England where such a terrific speed is attainable, the car will be shipped to America to attempt a world’s record-breaking performance on the Daytona Beach, Florida, in February.