DESIGN DESCRIBED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 135, 4 December 1929, Page 11

DESIGN DESCRIBED

The new car constructed for Mr. Kaye Don is described in the last issue of "The Motor." Ahead of the driver there are two engines, coupled iv tandem. The original 1000 h.p. Sunbeam, in which Major Henry Segrave first exceeded 200 m.p.h., also had two engines, but these were placed at the ends of the chassis, with the driver in the centre. On the new car there is a distributor gear behind the rearmost engine which conveys the power to a pair of propeller shafts driving the rear wheels, and the driver sits low down between the shafts, as in the Golden Arrow.

Each engine is a 12-cylinder job, with two banks (of sis cylinders each) forming a V on a common crankcase, and the general design is very similar to that of the power unit of the Sunbeam Tiger, which Kaye Don has driven at Brooklands with such success. Bach row of six cylinders is fed by an independent induction system and supercharger, so that there are four blowers in all.

At maximum revolutions, it is expected that the really astounding total of 4000 b.h.p. will be obtained. This will make the car by far the most powerful automobile ever built.

Another feature in which the Sunbeam resembles Captain Irving's design for the Golden Arrow consists' of the radiators, which are of the surface type and form rectangular slabs filling m the space between the front and rear wheels at each side of the body. It has been discovered that this form of pairing has a very beneficial effect on the stability of the car at colossal speeds such as that contemplated. Careful measurements were made of Kayo Don's sturdy frame before the designs were put in hand, and so cramped for space is his cockpit that the steering wheel lias to be detached in order to allow him to enter or leave the car.

The pedals are swung from pivots in a transverse bulkhead which separates the driver from the rearmost engine. The seat cushion is only 12 inches from the ground level, and the back of the scat, which can be adjusted for rake, extends upwards beyond the driver's shoulders in order to give Bupport to his head. In front of him there is a small sloping transparent panelling built into the body shell. The rear axle incidentally, will rise and fall only a few inches behind the back of the seat. An ingenious springing system has been evolved for the seat itself in order to intercept vibrations.

The highest point reached by the bodywork is situated just aft of the driver's head, but even here it stands about 4ft above ground. The wheels are three feet in diameter measured over the tire treads.