Speed Record

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1078, 16 September 1930, Page 6

Speed Record

Comment on Norman Smith’s Attempt Replying to a query, the following paragraph appeared in the Sydney “Bulletin”:— “A little information lias been allowed to leak out concerning the car which Harkness and Hillier, of Sydney, are making for Norman Smith, so that he may assault Segrave’s record at Ninety Mile Beach in M.L. The engine, lent by the British Government, is one of the hush-hush Rolls-Royce aero monsters designed for the Schneider Cup planes. It weighs 1,5001 b and develops 2,000 h.p. at maximum #evs. Cylinder dimensions are, bore Oiu., stroke 6Jin.; liow many cylinders is not stated. Segrave made his record with 900 h.t>. Kaye Don failed dismally with 4,000 h.p. Smith hopes he has struck the happy medium. The body of Smith's car, which will weigh, with motor, 2J tons, has been designed on the rather angular lines of Segrave’s Golden Arrow. Don’s much bigger Silver Bullet was so beautifully streamlined that it offered only 56 per cent, of the head resistance of the Arrow, but Smith reckons that what was gained in that way was lost in steadiness. The M.L. Government, which has a sporting streak and a keen eye for a good advertisement, is importing electric apparatus and in other ways doing its best to help the Australian driver. As to the beach, Smith, who did 146.31 miles an hour on it with a 160 h.p. car, swears it is perfect —there’s a 16-mile perfectly straight, smooth stretch, 200 yards wide, with sand so hard that the heaviest car at high speed hardly feathers it.”