SPEED RECORD BROKEN

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18878, 23 February 1933, Page 8

SPEED RECORD BROKEN

SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL SUCCEEDS. SPEED OF 273 MILES AN HOUR REACHED. MAGNIFICENT PERFORMANCE ON BUMPY COURSE. “CAR CAPABLE OF MUCH HIGHER SPEED.’’ Driving with one injured arm ever a very bumpy course, Sir Malcolm Campbell, the British racing motorist, attained a maximum speed of 273 miles an hour, and succeeded in smashing his own previous record of 259 miles an hour. The feat was achieved on the Daytona Beach yesterday amid bumpy conditions and very bad visibility. The Bluebird flashed in a zigzag course over the measured mile, finally coming to a stop with its tyres cut to ribbons by the shells strewn on the beach. Sir Malcolm, describing his effort as merely a high speed test run, is as yet undecided whether to make an attempt to raise the record still higher before returning to England.

THE RECORD RUN. VISIBILITY VERY BAD. SUCCESS AT DAYTONA BEACH. GREAT RUN ON HARD SAND. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. (Received Feb. 23, 10 a.m.) DAYTONA BEACH, Feb. 22. Sir Malcolm Campbell broke the world’s land speed record at Daytona Beach with a speed of 273.E5S miles an hour. He attained an astonishing record on the first official run, despite the faot that the visibility was not good.

forced to delay his record attempt for two weeks because of unfavourable conditions, decided to make the trials on Wednesday after the beach had improved, rather than risk a further postponement. He quickly threw the car into high gear, shoved the accelerator of the twelve-cylinder aeroplane motor towards the floor board, and was off on a terrific burst of speed, rapidly gaining momentum. The car approached top speed as it neared the officially-measured mile, and in only a few seconds streaked past the timing tower, to disappear in a light haze at the south end of the course.

He clocked over the offloial measured mile in 13.16 seconds. On the second run he reached a speed of 270.676 miles an hour. The a'erage was 272.1 08 for the new record. Sir Malcolm has thus exceeded by 18.14 ■miles an hour his old record of 253.968 miles an hour, lie made the second run In 13.60 seconds for an average lap time of 13.23 seconds. It was a thrilling and breath-taking dash over the beach speedway. The sand was hard-packed. At the same time as he set the mile record Sir Malcolm set & new mark of 271.636 miles an hour ove L - the one-ldlomelre route, his previous record being 251.340. The first run took 8.18 seconds for a speed of 271.802 miles an' hour, and the second run, 8.24 seconds for a speed of 271.472 miles an hour.

The car used by Sir Malcolm had been reconstructed and fitted with Rolls Roycc engines similar to those used in the victorious British Schneider Trophy aeroplanes, the horsepower thus being raised from 1458 to 2500.

TERRIFIC BURST OF SPEED METHOD OF COMPUTATION. “WORST RIDE IN' MY LIFE.” fulled Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. (Received Feb. 23, J 0.25 a.m.) DAYTONA BEACH. Feb. 22. Though visibility was none too good Sir Malcolm Campbell, who bad been

Because the visibility was so poor the spectators at the timing stand were unable to see the machine until it was only a mile away. Jumping out of the cockpit Sir Malcolm hastily inspected the car and gave the officials word that he was ready to start a second run. In an instant he was off again on another mad dash north. In computing the speed the officials averaged the elapsed time for the two trials, and divided th’at average into 3600, or the number of seconds In an hour, explaining that the procedure was the most accurate system to determine the average speed in miles per hour. Sir Malcolm said: "It was the worst ride I ever had In my life.”

THE BLUEBIRD. HIGHER SPEED POSSIBLE. SIR MALCOLM’S OPINION. CONDITIONS VERY UNFAVOURABLE (Official Wireless.i (Received Feb. 23, 1.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Feb. 22. In connection with Sir 'Malcolm Campbell’s record run, the conditions were so bad at midday, the hour announced for the trial, that he thought it would be impossible to break the record but undertook, in order not to disappoint the 50,000 people who were present, to drive the Bluebird as fast as he dared.

Sir Malcolm considers the car is capable of a higher speed than that recorded to-day, provided the course conditions are satisfactory.

HEROIC EFFORT. drove with injured arm. CAR BARELY UNDER CONTROL. United Props Assn.—Eloc. Tnl. Copyright. (Received Feb. 23. I.*lo p.m.) DAYTONA BEACH. Feb. 22. Suffering frern a sprained arm reccivAd last week in making repairs to

the Bluebird, Sir Malcolm Campbell said he was forced to drive with only one hand. “ The beach was so rough,” he said, “that on several occasions I thought I was gone. If I had not been able to control the car I should have landed either in the sand dunes cr the ocean. “ On my first run my tachometer or engine speed indicator showed I was doing 330 miles an hour, but because the course was so rough and my wheels were spinning almost constantly, my actual forward speed was greatly reduced. I didn’t encounter any mist on my windshield as I had expected, but the visibility was very bad. First I was heading for the sand dunes and the next instant I was heading for the sea. The car was snaking all over the course.”

“A ROUGH TRIP.” BUMPY CONDITIONS. CAR’S ZIGZAG COURSE. FURTHER ATTEMPT UNCERTAIN. ( United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. (Received Feb. 23, 1 p.m.) DAYTONA BEACH, Feb. 22. “ From the very start my arm was hurting me badly,” said Sir Malcolm, commenting on the run. “In fact, it was all I could do to shift the gears. Then when I got up to a fairly good speed I bumped along over the course like a pea in a pot. I didn’t put my foot down hard on the accelerator until I had almost reached the measured mile, because the car would not have stayed under control at a high sf eed with the beach as bumpy as it was." Sea shells, strewn on the course, cut Sir Malcolm’s tires badly, especially the rear driving tires, where the rubber was stripped in some spots down to the fabric. Several cuts as if Inflicted by a knife, were a quarter of an inch deep. ■“ On both my runs,” Sir Malcolm continued, “there were times when I could see no distance whatever ahead. I just had to guess an<* trust to luck. I was also bothered by sand kicked up Into my face and also from strong fumes from the motor. The car behaved magnificently under terrible conditions, but I certainly had a tough time keeping it from running all over the beach. Frankly it was the roughest ride I ever had and I’ll multiply that 50 times. All in all, though, the old car could have done much beter. if she had had better conditions. If they were better I am confident she wmuld have set a much higher record.” Sir Malcolm laughingly characterised his achievement as merely a high speed test run. He said he was undecided whether to make another try to boost the record still higher before returning to England.