THE END OF PARRY THOMAS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3610, 8 March 1927, Page 3

THE END OF PARRY THOMAS

London, March 5. The officially checked speen of Parry Thomas at the time of his disaster was revealed at the inquest as 179.5 miles an hour, and raises (In* interesting question as to wlicllicr he will regain the world’s recors in the moment of his death. .Nevertheless if will he unofficial, liecause he did not complete the course.. “I had never seen such speed,” said the mechanic, Pullen, a devoted friend of Thomas, who jumped to the top of the blazing ear, turned off the petrol, and dragged the body free. “I’ve considered and examined everything and I believe a s'tone caused the driving chain to snap. “The car was as fit and proper as human brains and ingenuity could make it,” said Leslie Collingham, engineer.

The Coroner, in returning a verdict of accidental death, said;: “He was a great man and a plucky man. I am not one to condemn record--1 breaking, for the history of England is made by pioneers. “Thomas’s bravery shows that the manhood of the Empire is not •dead in 1927.” CAR BURIED BY VILLAGERS. London, March 5. Parry Thomas’s giant racing car was towed from the beach at Pendine and buried like a human body in a great grave dug by villagers on the sancl dunes. It was at first, proposed to take the car out to sea but it was thought ashore. The villagers therefore dug a huge pit to which the car Avas dragged by a tractor and heaved into it. Spectators uncovered their heads Avhile the sandi was shovelled over it. It is expected a stone will be placed on the spit to mai’k the grave. The official timekeeper says that Parry Thomas did not achieve a record when he was killed. He was doing 170 miles per hour, but on a previous run he was only a fraction short of 175. This is not recognisable, because it was not maintained over both laps. Major Seagrave, Avho is travelling to the United 1 States to attempt a motor speed of 200 miles per hour on the Florida sands, wirelessed his appreciation of Parry Thomas, the motorist. avlio was accidentally killed. He says: “Thomas was one of the greatest exponents of motor racing. He was quiet, and unassuming and a. brilliantly clever engineer, and the only man in the motor racing world who both designed and drove his own car.’ The neAvspapers state that motor racing is, not only a. sport but a science from which the manufacturers of ordinary motor-ciais receive valuable data on design and metallurgy.