NEW LAND SPEED RECORD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20891, 22 November 1937, Page 9

NEW LAND SPEED RECORD

CAPTAIN EYSTON’S FEAT TEN MILES ADDED TO FIGURE SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL’S CONGRATULATIONS United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright NEW YORK, November 19. A message from Bonneville states that Captain G. E. T. Eyston broke the world’s land speed record, achieving a speed of 311.42 miles an hour. He also achieved a kilometre record, registering 312.2 miles an hour. His top speed was 319.11 miles an hour.

Captain Eyston said that his goggles were fluttering, being almost blown off his face. Sir Malcolm Campbell announced: “I will adhere to my decision to make no further land speed attempt so long as a Britisher holds the record.” Captain Eyston’s oar Is equipped with two twelve-cylinder Napier Rolls Royce aero engines lying parallel. Captain Eyston, who has many notable speed achievements to his credit, attained 305.34 miles an hour on the northward run, and on the southward run 317.74 miles an hour—an average of 311.42 miles an hour. Sir Malcolm Campbell was one of the first to be informed of Captain Eyston’s great achievement, and extended to him his warm congratulations. Previous Record The previous record of 301.1 miles an hour was established by Sir Malcolm Campbell in the Bluebird at Bonneville Flats, Utah, U.S.A., on September 3, 1935. Captain Eyston, M.C., who Is a consulting engineer by profession, is forty years of age. He has -?een a prominent British racing motorist for some years, and in the last six years he has established numerous small-car speed records. For such racing he wore an asbestos suit and drove in a glasscovered cockpit. In his equipment he included a gas mask. When he attempted a small car record at Paris in 1931 he almost lost his life. The car caught fire, and Captain Eyston had to jump for his life. He was tadly burnt and fractured a leg.