FAST TRAVELLING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 28 October 1932, Page 3

FAST TRAVELLING

MOTOR.

RECORD LAP PASSENGER'S EXPERIENCE ' IN RECORD -BRE AKIN G RACING CAR:

Wx^'ROG BY

"Hospdtal" . . . This word impressed itself most vividly on my mind as I clung precariously to the mech'anic's seat of one of the world's fastest racing cars driven by one of the fastest drivers during a record-breaking lap of the Tourist T'rophy course at Belfast, writes a correspondent of the Morning Post, London. It is not altogether to be wondered at, for the word was written in large letters on a notice board which, flanked by rows and rows of spectators, rushed toward us at nearly 115 miles , an hour. In one case a car passed clean unaer another while the second was in the air. It was a sort of life-and-death leapfrog. The record lap was done by Lord Howe, with myself in the mechanic's \ seat, the time being 10 minutes 15 sej conds for 13- 2-3 miles, an average of j 80 miles an hour. The car was Lord | Howe's racing Alfa Romeo, stripped , and specially tuned up to the last j ounce by the Italian manufacturers. J 1 persuaded Lord Howe to take ! me with him on his final practice lap>, J and after borrowing a pair of goggles j I plimbed into the narrow seat. Lord : Howe accelerated from Quarry Cor- ! ner, the first sharp turn of the course, on what was to prove the fastest lap of the y. The back of the seat shot ! me forward like a hydraulic ram. The i needle of the -engine revolutions coun- ' ter swung over the dial to 5000 a ' niinute and then began one of the ! most thrilling ten minutes I have ever ! experienced. Only about a dozen I times before, during wartime aerial j battles, have I known such exhilara- ! tion. I Although the course includes many j long straight stretches, siTch was the I terrific pace that twice we toolc the I pavement in order to cut the corners to the utmost limit. From start to j finish I was being pressed to one or I the other side of the seat with the tyres screaming and the car slith'ering round, seemingly on the point of plunging to destruction, but always responding to the resolute touch of Lord Howe. I found that I obtained the biggest thrill when corners were being approached at speed. This is where road racing is so much more exciting than trade racing. To rush straight for a block of buildings, with spectators at the windows and more clustering on the footpath, and to delay the instant of braking until it seems impossible that the car will stop in time, produces great emotional tension.