MOTOR RECORDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9154, 29 July 1908, Page 3

MOTOR RECORDS.

120 MILES AN HOUR

The Fiat car, in the third lap in the Napier versus Fiat race at Brooklauds track on- Monday, June Bth, made n world's record of 120 miles an hour for two and three-quarter miles, the driver being the Italian Nazarro. The race came about through Mr S. F. Edge's challenge to race with a9O h.p. Napier car tor £SOO, accepted ny Mr D'Arcy Baker with a 90 h.p. Fiat. The enclosures at Brooklatidi were crowded with cars, and at least 15,000 spectators were present. ThYtwo giant cars were a complete contrast—the green Napier long, low, and slim and the other vermilion Fiat, big, powerful, and assertive. Nazarro was not got up, like so many of the drivers, like a greasestained mechanic. He was spick and span, and drove in kid gloves and starched cuffs. The cars were started at the end of the finishing straight in full view of the spectators, and the Napier car jumped off very fast, and sjon established a lead of a hundred yards, which was increased to half a milts before the end of the first lap, which is nearly three miles. , Nazarro reduced the distance betweea and th? Napier during the second lap, but, Newton, the driver of th.9 Napier car, etill had a I considerable lead wh:n the rivals ' ..H.r.'n came round. In the third lap j was obviously gaining, but j at the beginning of the fourth New ton suddenly stopped. A hot bearing ha 1 seized and driven the connectingroJ right through the crank chamber, makine it impossible for it to go on. . Nazarro, however, had got into his stride, and at this moment put on a tremendous spurt, unaware that his rival had left the track. He tore round and round at a breathhss pace, but slowed when he found he was fibne. Nazarro's world's record, 120 miles an hour, was officially certified by the Brooklands Racing Club and the Secretary of the Royal Automobile ( Cluo The speed over the whole dis- j tarn:j of 27J miles averaged 94f miles | a . Lour. j Tha previous bast for a short dis-> taice was accomplished by Mr A. Lee Guinness on the Brooklands track in September last year, when a speed of 115.4 miles an hour was attained. Nazarro on the Fiat did his fastest lan at 111.5 miles an hour, and his j daredevil spurt at a much higher rate of speed. The fastest long-distance time, With a scanding start, was 89.11 miles an hour; the Italian running without the pushing incentive of a competitor for two-thirds of the race, came very nearly to running at I the" .rate 'of .95 mile 3an hour. Nazarro drove the car that won the Grand Prix to victory last year, he won tha Brescia Circuit race in Italy, and tin Tar b 'a Fioca rir-a in Sicily.