FEATURES OF SEGRAVE’S CAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 21 (Supplement)

FEATURES OF SEGRAVE’S CAR

TREMENDOUS BRAKE DRUMS Interest in the Golden Arrow, which was the principal exhibit at the AllBritish Motor Olympia, seemed to get keener every day. The brakes of the Golden Arrow are well in keeping with the massivenese and power of this masterpiece of engineering. Huge brake-drums —as large as rhe wheels of an ordinary car and with an area of 30(5 square inches of brake lining—are striking interesting features. Tn designing the car it was impossible to predict at what speed it would be travelling when the brakes were applied and what distance it would cover before it could bo brought to rest safely. If the car attained a speed of 240 m.p.h. it would travel 352 feet in one second, and if allowed to come to rest without using the brakes, it would cover 4J miles in 2.125 minutes under the impulse of its own momentum. Assuming that it could be stopped from a velocity of 352 feet a second in 30 seconds it, would travel one mile. In such a case the rate of retardation would be 8 m.p.h. n second, or 11.3 feet a second, which is equivalent to stopping from 30 m.p.h. in 83 foot —not by any means a good performance in the ordinary way. Even the duty of the brakes would be severe, as the dissipation of energy is at the rate of 700 h.p. The tremendous strain imposed on the Golden Arrow necessitated the axles, brakedrums and practically every component of the machine being forged and turned out of the solid billet of steel—no castings were used.