THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, MOTORING SUPPLEMENT. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1929,
HOW SEGRAVE BROKE THE SPEED RECORD,
Thrilling Description of How the Golden Arrow was Piloted.
DRIVER'S ACCOUNT OF THE DOUBLE RUN,
RESEARCH COST HIGHL
The
slowly amid the hard clatter of tona, wondering what has happen- "At the end of the first run--
SEEKS FREE: DUTY, hammers on the wheel hub nuts. jed, not without foreboding. during which, by the way, the car Almost a minute's furious hurry Abruptly the desk telephone ringe, handled extremely well-the mech- and the four wheels slide off, four and right across half the world.a anles changed all four wheels as Roads, the various state highway ciation is seeking an amendment U.S. Bureau of Public The American Automobile Asso- more take their place, the nuts well-known voice says, quité a precaution and put in more water departments and agricultural col to the Tariff Act. under which are driven home,
the jacks simply: "Daytoun enlling; this is and more fuel in six minutes four-leges and experiment stations change American motorists, buy- unscrewed, and, the car slowly Segrave speaking-it's all right, teen seconds, the trouble with the spent a total of nearly $1,000,000 ing cara in foreign countries," turns through 180 degrees.. she's done it."
water pipe being cured at the for the study of highway candi would be allowed to bring them. The Return Trip.
same time. The wind during both tions and other research work into the United States free of runs was something in the nature during 1928.
duty."
1
MANY AIR PILOTS.
COSTLY ROADS.
Segraves Version. For a second it stands while the Over the telephone Segrave was of 20-25 m.p.h., and blowing dead twelve exhaust pipes apit flame and extremely interesting. He said: "I on the side of the car all the time. amoke and noise, then, with a took, a run of about four miles quick jerky action, the golden to get up speed before entering the the cockpit during the whole run "One Interesting joint was that machine gathers way stupendous- stretch across which the timing was free from fumes and quite Two hundred and thiryt-one horn sounds. Suddenly the ear is incredibly, the exhaust note wires were laid, and for the first cool-a big point, since engine pilots in the United States on the highways in the world during There were. 4.690 licensed ́air] The cost of constructing all the caught by a far-off muffled roar as machine increasca speed, in one the rev. counter dial and change the driver, and it would be quite women. California leads all other 000. Of this amount, $1,860,- changes with gears, the great part of the run I was able to watch fumes have a very bad effect on first of the year, 34 of whom wore 1928 cost more than $2,660,000,- When Segrave first exceeded 200 (of some unseen angry monster. swift rush becomes a projectible from first to second and second to easy for the temperature to be atates in the number of llecnsed 025,770 was spent in the United. m.ph. at Daytona two years ago, The roar deepess to a thunder, in- screaming through the air, flies top exactly at 3,200 r.m.p. The come unbearable if the design of pilots, everyone thought the limit had crenses very swiftly, becomes in. over the marked course, and, be commencement and the finish of the "Golden Arrow" had not been
States, been reached.
describable, something beside fore the spectatora can regain the measured section were indicat right."
miles an hour!
by the sea, on
4
their breath, is gone
The Time Announced.
a
Jed by two big trestles 60ft high, with a wire between them on which was suspended a largo red
Maximum Not Reached.
to
Is there a limit at all when in ghting aeroplane high up in the which the menacing voice of a those two short years the same sky is but a pale reflection. Far driver can add nearly thirty miles away on the stind a small weird- an hour to the record?
In answer to another question, A moment's gathering at the are lump; this could be picked up look low machine comes into timing Instruments, a comparison roughly a mile away.
Segrave said: "That'sar never Imagine a vast stretch of almost view with incredible swiftriden, its of the typewritten strips, then an used the foresight which Irving conditions, and, given anything When I could see the light I reached its maximum owing to the deserted sand flanked on one sido gold paint glistening. It travels offelal makes the matter of-fact
the other by low with deceptive smoothness, be announcement of modern had put on the car in a place us-like good weather and smoother banks, beyond which are the comes rapidly larger, achieves a miracle-n man haa travelled ually occupied by the radiator cap sund, I think-though it is ox- heuses of Daytona in Florida, pandemonium of noise, and, before faster than ever man travelled be- and a rough form of backsight, tremely difficult to 8a3-that come Where the sea plays the sand is a single detail can be recognized, fore. England has regained the and though the great difficulty was four or five miles per hour could be soft and dark, above, that huris itself between the marks world's speed record, and months to see the course properly these added to the present average. But hardens to a heretelike surface and is instantly disappearing hi of strenuous work by hundreds of nights were very useful. As It I shan't go again unless the record almont dazzlingly white, and above the distance.
men, thousands of pounds of append. the weather was very is beaten by the White Triplex that again nearer the banks, it is
money, have achieved the desired bad indeed; there was mist lying very shortly. My plans aro looser, more like real sand.
Thought Ouifnced; jend: thirty-one and a fraction in patches all along the course and leave in two days' time to attempt In the foreground stand deser
seconds furious action and an the visibility in general was pretty the boat record, and then to sail The thing's pace out-speeds average speed of 231.362 miles per bnd-about three-quarters of a for England on April 6th." ed certain strange marks with a thought, and it is some seconds be hour for the mile for two runs mile, in fact, though in pinces I Aaring light, a mile away are fore the mind can take it all in; have been achieved.
Talking of the difficulties of the could see for as much on's mile. others with another light, and in then it flashes upen' one that the
That was why the are lamps were record, Segrave said: "The worst between the marks atretches, just ear seems to be travelling in Instantly the excited crowd so useful to show up the beginning time was at the end of the second clear of the sand, the wire of an silence and the uproar to be warms over the beach to cluster and end of the course. The con- run when, just before the car cras- electrical timing apparatus, Safe following astern. Of smoke, or in one chéering group as the big dition of the sand was very bad, sed the line, it struck a bad gulley ly distant is the apparatus itself dust, or upflug sand there is no carnes slowly back to the officertainly worse than when i went and the wrench damaged one of with officials watching the strip recollection, and, curiously, not a fals. It is a wonderful moment last time and I am told worse even the radiators, fortunately without on which a clocklike mechanism memory of the man whose skill that, when, the task safely accom than when Canipbell made his re- slowing the car. The damage is stamps the recorded time. Up on jalone controls that ginnt projectile, plished, a driver can lower bis cord run. There was water on being repaired at the present the banka is ahenger throng of
goggles and come slowly up to he Right away beyond the mark the wonderful welcome which an stretches.
Band for considerable moment, and the car, inspected people kept in order, ant out of posts, unseen by most of the American crowd knows how to
after the run, was in perfect con- harm's way, by a line of pollee, spectators, a group of mechanics give. Not all the money in the
dition and quite fit to attack re- some on motor eyeles, some in cars, dash at the car
"The ear behaved exactly the cords again. Probably the damage: as it slows to a world while all around are cameras of stop with long streaks of all run would the successful champion but on the first run water coming car slueing sideways and twisting can buy its equal, nor same each run, north and south, to the radiator was caused by the) every shape and kind,
jning along the body and a show of change places with any living man, from a pipe near the engine began the whole radiator unit.
orangre tam from the squat ex-
to spray over my windshield and I anuste. Faur quaint jacks arz Some three thousand miles away find to look out round the edge of Fram the son there is a stendy, screwed from the frame to the two men wait restlessly in a Lon- the screen, which was not a very mild wind. An electric warning isand, the three tons of car ryhen Bee, thefr minds out at Day- pleasant performance.
The Monster Starts.
Another year of triumph
for Studebaker's
ERSKINE SIX
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THE HONG KONG HOTEL GARAGE
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Tel. Central 4759.”
"By the way, during both runs it was quite impossible to hear a sound from the exhaust pipes, al- Though they are in front of the ear, because of the roar of the wind past my ears."
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Segrave sali: "The car is to go KELLER, KERN & Co., Ltd.
out to-morrow, but the weather at the moment is getting steadily worse and there is a good denl
of rain. The car should be driven either by Bob McDonogh, whom you know well enough, or by Lee. Bible, who is what they call here an "outlaw" driver, or by Deacon | Litz, who drove a Miller at Indian- apolis. Duray is not driving, and the ear has had a certain amount of mechanical trouble, though that will probably be got right. The people over here gave my car a wonderful reception, and I have had every posible assistance in
every way."
The Actual Times.
The actual times are interesting. The first run over the kilometre) gave an average of 375 k.p.h., and: over the mile, 231.511 m.p.h.. slightly faster, that is; over the kilometre than the mile, the aver age being just over 23 m.p.h. On the second run the speed was slightly lower, the average over the kilometre being 369-989 k.p.h., and the average over the mile 231-| 213 m.p.h., so that the record now standa for the mile at 231.362 |m.p.h., and for the kilometre at 372.478 k.p.h.. and actually the highest speed in for the kilometre by a minute fraction, · It will be noticed that there is not a great deal of difference between the two runs, which shows that the wid was not helping the car one-way or the other, but, being a side wind, was impeding it in both directions.
Tyres Stout Work.
The tyres were in extraordin arily good condition, but were changed as a matter of precaution. Quite apart from the magni- ficence of a record which puts the speed up home 24 m.p.h., when it is already exceedingly high, one of the best features of the whole- attempt is that it was essentially a aporting effort. An immense debt of gratitude is owed to the man wlio provided the funda which alone made the attack pos- siblo, and who, following the best traditions of sportmanship, prefera to remain in the back- ground, anonymous, and LINO made It possible for the whole thing 'to be AC- complished without appearing for money either as a bonus or other- wise from such suppliers of material no were willing to con- tribute.
who
There may be certain technical lessons arising from the record, but if there are they are entirely overshadowed by the sporting side of the affair and by the undoubted. and immense gain in prestige for this country's drivers and for this country generally, Segravo's achievement will go down in history, and really can only be judred when an accurate historical perspective has been established; but it certainly ranks in effect with the successes of other great adventurers whose names arc household words to-day,--"Thie Autogar."
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