SECRET SPEED MONSTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 12

SECRET SPEED MONSTER

NEW HUSH-HUSH CAR STEERING BY RIFLE SIGHTS With a new "hush-hush” ear, which embodies remarkable devices. Major H. O. D. Segrave, the- famous racing motorist, hopes to regain the world’s land speed record for England. He will make the attempt next February at Daytona Beach, Florida, and expects to attain a speed of at least 240 miles an hour. The 1,000 h.p. car is now being assembled at the Robin Hood Engineering Works, Putney Vale, London, and will be ready for shipment across the Atlantic by the end of January. The gear-box has still to be delivered. No one except the designer and workmen actually engaged on the car is permitted to enter the particular section of the works where it is being made. The Golden Arrow, as the car has been christened, is only 2ft wide in the body and is 28ft in length. It weighs slightly over three and a-half tons. Particular attention has been paid to the construction of the brakes, which must be sufficiently powerful to pull up the car from a speed of about 240 m.p.h. in the space of four miles. These brakes are of tremendous size, and of a secret construction. which reduces to a minimum the risk of their being rendered inefficient by heat.

Major Segrave’s great problem has been how to overcome the danger of steering at a phenomenal speed. It has now been decided to fit the car with sights similar to those of a rifle, and to eTect on the sands t Daytona two immense targets. Both these sights and the two targets on the course will be magnified by a telescope fixed to the car. Without these guides there would be danger that the slightest deviation from the straight line when travelling at the maximum speed might send the car into the sea. Major Segrave will be able to look through the telescope and steer straight in line with the first bull's ej-e suspended directly over the start of the mile. As the car passes under this target he will then sight the second bull's eye at the end of the mile. Instead of relying on a stopwatch for his spectacular attempt Major Segrave will drive his car over electrical timing tapes at the beginning and finish of the measured mile. He will start four and a-half miles from the beginning of the timed course, this run being considered necessary for reaching the maximum speed.