180 MILES AN HOUR

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1927, Page 2

180 MILES AN HOUR

MOTOR SPEEDING. 1 [Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] LONDON, March o. The officially-checked speed of the motorist, Parry Thomas, at the time of his disaster was revealed at the inquest- of 179.5 miles per hour, and this raises the interesting question as to whether he regained the world’s record in the moment of his death. Nevertheless it would he regained unofficially, hecause Thomas did not complete the course. , " I never had seen such speed,” said the mechanic Pullen the devoted friend

of Thomas who jumped on the flaming car, turned off the petrol, and dragged p the body free. “ I’ve considered and examined everything, and I believe that a stone causing the driving-chain to snap. The . ear was as fit and proper as human brain and ingenuity could make it,” said Leslie Callmgham. an engineer. The Coroner, in returning a verdict of accidental death, said: “He was a great man and a plucky man. lam not one to condemn record-breaking. The history of England is made by pioneers. Thomas’s bravery shows that the manhood of the Empire is not dead in 1927.”

LATER. The official timekeeper says that Parry Thomas did not achieve the record when lie was killed. He was doing 170 miles per hour, but on the previous run he was only a fraction short of 175. This speed is not reeogj nisable because it was not maintained over both laps. LONDON, March 5. The late Parry Thomas’ giant racing car was towed from the beach at Pendine and buried, like a human body, in a great grave dug by the villagers on the sand dunes. It was at first- proposed to take the car oot to sea. but it was thought that the car would only he washed ashore. The villagers therefore dug a. huge pit. to which the ear was dragged by a tractor, and heaved into it. The spectators uncovered their heads while sand was being shovelled over it.

It is expected that a stone will he placed on the spot to mark the grave. LONDON, March 5.

Commenting on the terrific speed of the present day, John Prioreau. a wellknown motorist, stated: “I recently asked Parry Thomas why lie did it. Ho replied: ‘ I cannot help it.’ T spoke to Seagrave, who is journeying to America to attempt to establish a record of two hundred miles an hour by rnotor IR said; 1 People =ny