NIGHTMARE SHAPES FOR SPEED

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 10

NIGHTMARE SHAPES FOR SPEED

MOTOR MONSTERS NEW WORLD RECORDS Racing cars are already monsters. Recent cables tell of Malcolm Campbell’s new car like a whale, with lins and a tail. Others (perhaps more grotesque still) are building lor attempts in a few weeks’ time on the world’s record. This article (in the Sydney ‘Sun’) explains why they must take fearsome shapes, and why the racers of the future will bo still more nightmarish, still more costly, and still more ephemeral. in San Francisco there is a .motor car, though perhaps one would not recognise it as ’such, that has taken several years to perfect, and has cost something like £12,000. The owner wants it to do a journey of twelve miles, and he will then have no further use for it. But in one ol those miles he hopes to prove, that his car can travel faster than anything on earth—earth in the truly litoral sense; sand, to bo explicit. The last word in the world of automobiles is one of the American challengers for the world’s speed record created by Major Sograve for Britain in his Sunbeam last year. It will make its first, and probably last public appearance at Daytona Beach, Florida, less than a month hence, in the^ international competition for Sir Charles Wakefield’s £I,OOO prize and gold cup. Designed for a speed of 210 miles an hour—the record stands at 203,388 —it has three engines, one in front, and one at cither sidc._ Each engine lias twelve cylinders—thirty-six in all. The designer-driver—a man of fortysix years, incidentally—calculates that he will need to cover six miles to get up ■speed to carry him over the mile at which the car will bo timed. The other five miles will bo required to slow down ! Construction costs alone of the three ears competing at Daytona will represent the best part of £50.000. Malcolm Campbell’s “ Blue Bird ” —the British defender, which is described as resembling a giant projectile on wheels, and which has been designed to reach a speed of four miles a minute—cost its Owner £IB,OOO.

The American Dusenberg. which will have the famous Frank Lockhart at its wheel, will probably involve an expenditure round about, the same figure. This is the most mysterious of the three “ mystery ” machines that will participate. Something is known of the others, but even the merest detail of the Dusenhorg’s construction has been kept a jealously guarded secret. Experts are inclined to think, however, that it will prove to he a tremendously heavy car developing enormous power. The designers, it is said, aim at a speed of 220 miles an hour. It seems almost certain that Sograve’s almost incredible, speed will be eclipsed when these three mechanical monsters go roaring, seuddering, hurtling over Daytona’s sands.

When and where will il end? As well might the, designer of the one-horse-power Ran hard, which still chugs out eight miles an hour for the Abbe of Gavois, have essayed to foretell in 1891. that in 1928 there would he 1,000-horse-power-enrs capable of travelling more than 200 miles an hour. At all limes in the world’s history speed has had attractions for mankind. Racing, whether of men, beasts, or machines, has even been a sport of the first rank. And so it will go on, the striving for more speed and still more speed. While, there arc materials to build them and men to drive them, there will will bo newer and more powerful chariots of raging power to take the place of the last record holder—motor car seems a curiously inappropriate term to apply in description of these monstrosities in metal, which, with their fins, and armor plating, and gigantic oxhausts, and their endless freak appliances, so little resemble a motor car.

It is in the nature of tilings that there never will be a shortage of men to drive them; but whether they will be able to stand the strain and retain control of a madly plunging, ricochetting steering wheel is another matter. The greater problem lies in the direction of securing materials that will stand the stresses of great speeds.

Research and experiments extending over more than a year were carried out by the firm which manufactured the tyres for Segravc’s car before they were satisfied that they would weather the pounding of the speed test. It is computed that they must have cost about £I,OOO apiece. And they travelled a bare ten miles! A curious fact about these tyres is that they carry only a light tread. If the tread were heavy it would fly off the casing. Another interesting point is that in Segrave’s car each tyre had an air pressure of 1001 b. The normal pressure in the tyre of the round-town ear is from about OO to 401 b.

Two other big problems which, as in the past, will confront the designers of future record breakers arc tboso_ ol wind resistance and .stability, especially in the latter connection, for keeping the machines on the ground. Streamlining to the last degree has not overcome the difficulty of resistance. ’1 he wind still clings to the sides of the machine, and sets up a retarding vacuum behind. From the speed motorist’s point of view one of the most interesting features ol next month s contest will lie in the testing of the wind-dcliccting fins with which Campbell has equipped bis “ Blue Bird.” ft is probable that this phase of car design will be more highly developed in the future. >

As it is the chief concern of the aircraft builder to keep his machine in the air, so it is the speed ear builder’s aim to keep his machine on the groundright side up. With each increase in speed his problem becomes more complicated. It is well within the bounds of possibility that ho will ultimately borrow the aeronaut's equipment to the extent of attaching pianos to Ins machine to give an inverse effect. Another factor in securing greater stability may come from the development of the front drive.. There are one or two cars- built on this principle in the United States. They differ from the conventional rear-driven cars in that their driving is done by the front axle instead of the rear. The claims made for the front-driven car arc that, ns it pulls itself along instead of pushing itself, there is none of the tendency’ to skid as in roardriven vehicles. Jt is, in effect, adopting the tractor principle, which aeroplane makers found so satisfactory in the early days, as opposed to the pushing principle. Mr Boyd Edkins, himself a. notable driver, lias given deep study to the problems of speed in relation to cars. He thinks that dOO miles an hour will one day he within (lie reach of the speed kings. In his view it is largely a matter of material, especially tyros, to stand the strain- s

“Not long ago.” he says, “no tyre could be relied upon to stand up to 150 miles an hour. Then the manufacturers got busy' and turned out tyres for Segrave which carried his big car at more than 2AO miles an hour. Now they are fitting nut Malcolm Campbell’s machine for an even bigger performance. “The strain on the tyres when the ear is travelling at these speeds is terrific. Segrave had .14in wheels, which would give a. circumference ot tread ot approximately nine leet. Allowing lor slip, the periphery speed—the rate at which the tread covered the ground—-

would be something like 6,000 yards a minute. “Ju America a little while ago a manufacturer of racing cars sought to achieve a speed of 175 miles au hour with a specially constructed machine. He found that when he reached 150 miles an hour the car set up a terrific vibration. For months on end ho experimented with the engine and transmission, but, although bo knew that the car was capable ol much higher speed ho could never get above 150. “Then one day ho jacked the car up, with its rear wheels about an inch and a-half from the ground. He set the engine moving, and carclully studied the wheels us they revolved. As their revolutions approached a speed equivalent to 150 miles an hour on tbo track he noticed that the tyres became distorted to such an extent that they actually touched the ground. It was that distortion which caused the vibration.

“ Segrave had a precisely .similar experience when he was experimenting with tyros. He had his car anchored to a dummy road—a system of rollers — and found that when it attained the equivalent of 175 miles an hour the tyres tlcw to pieces. The defects were successfully remedied. It was all a matter of balancing and weight distribution.

“ Campbell says that the immediate problem of tyres, so far as his attempt on the record is concerned, has been solved. If that is so it has been done very quietly, and no doubt in the light of Segrave’s experience. “ Not so long ago, when racing cars reached 120 miles an hour, it was concluded that that was the limit of speed at which tyres could transmit power to the ground. Now they added 100 miles to that. Not even Segrave or Campbell can foretell what car speed the future holds. It will no doubt be possible to build machines of prodigious horse-power and of incredible weight, winch could obtain undreamed-of speed. Brute lore© will achieve anything—but will it serve any useful purpose?” Motor speed, of course, inis this value .—if a racing car can he built to travel at over 200lniles an hour,, it must possess features that could he profitably adapted to improve he efficiency of the everyday car—things like improve! steering, road-holding ability, an! metals that will stand greater stresses