SPEED RECORD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

SPEED RECORD

MR NORMAN SMITH’S TASK. Now that Captain Mlcolm Campbell has raised the world's land speed to an average of more than four miles a minute, interest will centre on the attempt of the Australian, Mr Norman Smith, which will be made during the next three months on the Ninety-mile Beach, near Kaitaia, New Zealand, states the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” This course he has already made world-famous by his feats there with a car of a somewhat international character last year, the Anzac. This car, which had an American Cadillac chassis. frame and wheels, a British Rolls Royce aero engine of 350-h-p., and an Australian body, covered a mile at a mean average speed of 144 miles an hour, taking 24 3-ssec (146.341 miles an hour in one direction) and 25 2-ssec. (141.732 miles an hour) in the other. He also covered 10 miles straightaway in one direction only in 4min. 2 1-5-sec., averaging 148.63 miles an hoittfe These are Australasian records. For this new attempt Mr Smith will be equipped with an engine of similar type and dimensions, but considerably more efficiency, it is believed, than Captain Campbell had, and he is confident that the speed of which Captain Campbell himself speaks, 300 miles an hour, is possible for him. To achieve this it will be necessary to cover the mile in 12sec. or less—that Is, about 150 yards every second on the measured mile. Mr Smith will have an additional marked advantage over Captain Campbell in the fact that he will have a beach with a straight of 36 miles, more than 300 yards wide at low tide, and a surface as level and firm apparently as a first-class road. Captain Campbell had only nine miles on which to drive at Daytona, and to develop his full speed he had to take a run in on five and a-half miles, trusting to his brakes to arrest his progress before he got into difficulties in the remaining two and a-half miles, unless some way was found to make a more lengthy section available for pulling up at the conclusion of his successful drive. A notable feature of the last two record drives, the late Sir Henry Segrave’s and Captain Campbell’s, is the remarkable evenness of the times In each direction. When Segrave made his record of 231.36 miles an hour he covered the mile in one direction in 15.565ec., and in the other in 15.555ec., in each instance averaging more than 231 miles an hour, the mean being 231.36 miles an hour. Captain Campbell covered the mile one way in 14.0 sec., and in the other in 14.75ec., the mean, 14.655ec., averaging 245.73 miles an hour. Whatever speed the Australian driver attains, with the immense power he will have at his command and the more scientifically constructed special car than the Anzac which Mr D. J. Harkness it now completing for him, he will most certainly raise the Australasian record. The world’s speed record has been increased by impressive mileages and percentages during the past 15 years, and the present holder has improved on his own early performances by 108 miles an hour in the past eight years. In 1923 he caused a world-wide sensation by covering a mile in the mean average time of 26.145ec. (137.7 miles an hour) on Fanoe Beach, Denmark; during the past few days he has covered the same distance in 14.655ec. (245.733 miles an hour). Among the impedimenta which Captain Campell took to Daytona Beach for his attack on the record were about 400 gallons of special motor spirit and 100 gallons of oil, a duplicate engine in case of unexpected trouble there, cases of spare parts, including several final gear ratios, about 18 spare wheels complete, 36 spare racing tires, and 300 spark plugs. These wheels, complete with the tyres, weigh 2251 b. each, and it takes tlTree mechanics to lift one and fit it to the car. The tyres were of the lightest possible type, and when one burst in South Africa during his attempts on the record at Vemeuk Pan, Captain Campbell made a remark which indicated that they cost him £l2O each. Mr Norman Smith will also have a supply of the same type of tyres for use on the F. H. Stewart Special when he makes his record attempts in New Zealand.

AUSTRALIAN ANTHEM. Charles Laurence, who is M.C. at the community concerts at Chetswood Town Hall, Sydney, every Monday night, has felt constrained to write an Australian National Anthem. The words are as follows: — Australia, Australia, Land of our Birth, Australia, Australia, we know thy worth, Sun kissed and Bountiful, girt by the sea, Our land, Australia, God keep thee free. The Flag with the Southern Cross proudly we bear, Thy Sons are valiant Thy Daughters fair, We love thee, Australia, To thee we sing, God bless Australia, God Save the King. It has been set to music by Carlton Fay (“John”), the pianist at the community songs, but there is not likely to be a sensational demand for it. There is now a by-law in Birmingham prohibiting the use of loud-speak-ers in public places to the annoyance of passengers or occupants of any premises.

The speaker is a most important item and without a decent speaker no set can give good performance. It is also found that cheap speakers are liable to no end of troubles, such as burnt-out windings, which make the speaker really a poor proposition.