Other Speed Record Breakers Are Available!

[Renegadenemo]

SSC for me. The sheer audacity of it and the very Britishness of solving such a crazy set of engineering problems. Fabulous.

Oh, and I like that blue boat too.

[bluebirdsback]

For me it has to be the blueboat closely followed by CN7. Even before i started school i watched Donalds attempts at new records, My dad used to say. "Hes trying again" and we would watch with baited breath and cheer as he notched another one up. I was 13 on his last attempt and still remember feeling gutted that we would never watch again that graceful machine skimming across the water. Little did i know that 40 odd years later i would be banging rivets into her to achieve as part of a team that event i thought we would never see again. Sadly my dad is no longer with us but if he were he would be first on the bus to see it. All of these other machines have done the job of taking records but to me the Bluebirds take the crown for grace and beauty. "British engineering old boy"

[bluebirdsback]

Hi Rosie im Rob and Single

[Renegadenemo]

Hey, Rob, best you run back you your good lady before she reads your last post and hope Rosie never gets her hands on your rivet. Wouldn't like to mess with her, methinks.

As for dads, mine is still here, an avid watcher of the project even though after a long career of chasing the next dollar he doesn't get why there's dust settling on my desk and I've abandoned the cut and thrust of the business world in favour of being showered in aluminium shavings for no pay most days. Yet the old bugger (68 today) will be first up there with the bragging rights when we take our tin boat back to Coniston. Likewise, I'm sure Rob's old fella is in good company and no further from the action than Donald, Leo, the Norris boys and all the rest of them who have to watch from the other side.

[rob565uk]

One record-breaker I really admire but who tends to get glossed over is Captain George E. T. Eyston. A highly decorated Soldier (MC as I recall) and outstanding Engineer with several patents to his name, he developed a number of record breaking cars in various classes, culminating in the mighty "Thunderbolt" mounting two Rolls Royce R engines of 37 litres each and weighing some 7 tons. He designed the car himself and it was built in a very short period of around 6 months. During the 1930s he and John Cobb provided a wonderful showcase of British design, engineering, skill and bravery as they battled it out at Bonneville - Eyston with Thunderbolt reaching an eventual peak of 357mph before being beaten by Cobb in the Railton Mobil Special. There is some wonderful and evocative video available on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp_LGPxblnM

Eyston went on to become a Director of BP and assisted John Cobb in the latter's tragic WWSR attempt with Crusader at Loch Ness in the 1950s. He was also a friend of the Campbell Family and is believed to have provided advice and guidance for Donald Campbell in his early record attempts.

[malcolm uk]

Whilst I suppose I now have an interest in everything that goes fast on land or water, my interest was first sparked by the battle for the outright lsr between Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. The 'Green Monster' cars were the brute force (some may say crude build) of LSR and I loved them.

My motorsport path changed course (literally from Brands Hatch and Silverstone to Millbrook and Elvington) once I could become involved with speed record braking in an active way. What was once the preserve of the well healed is now much more open to the working man - with (a great deal of) help from friends and contacts.

Just at the moment there has to be a preference towards a blue boat, but that is just a 'fill in' until a serious new-build comes along in the wsr.

Malcolm

ps do not forget that there are said to be eight absolute lsr contenders progressing their projects as I write.

[bluebirdsback]

No need for jealousy Mike, if i had my own aviator thingy i wouldnt want yours. Can i have one please, can i eh, can i. I would feed it and take it for walks. Can i eh.

[jonwrightk7]

well apart from the obvious bloke and his blue boat, it was really richard noble who kindled my interest. the ssc project was a total triumph over all the "experts" who said it couldnt be done and the sheer scale of the problems involved in preventing the car ploughing or flying. Mr Noble and Mr Green in particular deserve much respect!! donalds trials with the cn7 do not grab me in the same way, but to soldier on in the face of such adversity and doubt of his ability to do the job was a stupendous display of his courage and grit . art arfons, the "junkyard genius of the jet set" is right up there too. a demonstration of backyard ingenuity over corporate millions. ken warby, who i met in the black bull in coniston two years ago is another hero in the truest sense of the word. finally, craig arfons, a very brave man. but how he thought he was going to get the wwsr in basically a drag boat on steroids on a lake as short as lake jackson is beyond me. as ken warby said to me in the bull, "peak speeds stand for nothing, its the average that gets the record" brave men one and all!!

[bluebirdsback]

Hey Mike. Got me self one of them aviator thingies. What do you think? Her names Amy.

[speedboatstuart]

I think we are all greed that DMC and k7 are top of the list but let us not forget those people like PARRY THOMAS (BABS) who was a first class engineer even by todays standards and who had advised Malcolm Campbell on occasion with his cars and of coarse who perished on Pendine sands in 1927 , Babs being the first record breaking pheonix to rise from the ashes to full running order much the same as K7 will be. Then of coarse Sir Henry Seagrave (1000hp sunbeam Golden Arrow, Miss England) who while being a friend of Sir Malcolm Campbells also pushed the boundries of speed and dualed against campbell before perishing on Windermere in Miss England. A salute to all these brave souls who risked their lives in the name of british industry and pride and to prove that as DMC said "THE BRITISH WHEN THEY PUT THEIR MINDS TO IT CAN OVERCOME ALL OBSTICALS AND ACHEIVE ANYTHING" Heres to british guts and determination . May i say that it is wonderful that we are now seeing the british spirit back again in the bluebird project with the GUTS to find and raise K7 and the DETERMINATION to rebuild her and to complete her. 3 CHEERS FOR THE BLUEBIRD PROJECT TEAM !!!!