NEW SPEED RECORD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20509, 10 January 1935, Page 9

NEW SPEED RECORD.

.Engineers Prophesy 300 Miles an Hour. SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL'S PLAN British Official Wireless. (Received January 10, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, January 9. A new Bluebird motor-car, incorporating many new features, in which Sir Malcolm Campbell will attempt to lower his own world’s speed record at Daytona Beach next month, was on View at the Brooklands racing track to-day. The new car, weighing four and three-quarter tons, is being shipped to America in the Berengaria on January 16. Sir Malcolm Campbell will follow in the Aquitania a week later. Sir Malcolm Campbell hopes to make his attempt on the record on February 19, as a full moon occurs on that date and the beach and weather conditions should be at their best. A considerable advance on the present record of 272.108 miles an hour, set up by Sir Malcolm Campbell at Daytona on February 22, 1933, is anticipated. The engineers associated with the construction of the car prophesy a speed of 300 miles an hour. The Bluebird in its new shape resembles a monster whale, with a gaping mouth, a couple of blunt fins forward of the cockpit and a finned tail. The slit head admits cooling air to the radiator and there is a lever in the cockpit to close the slit. This, when open, lessens the speed 15 miles an hour, but Sir Malcolm Campbell is doubtful if he will have a hand to spare from steering to close the gaping mouth, when travelling flat out. The engine is an old twelve-cylinder Rolls Royce. but the streamlined body and braking system are new. If there is unlimited room at Daytona, 300 miles an hour will ( be possible. but the problem is how to get up speed to cover the measured mile and to pull up within the nine miles available. The car consumes 2.9 gallons of fuel a minute. Sir Malcolm Campbell said that the existing record means 134 cards a second, thus half a second lost through wheel bounce will destroy the chance of a record.