Marv’s Garage: Kings of Speed

The history of the Land Speed Record is full of brave people pushing the boundaries of human endeavour, but every so often there are noteworthy people who deserve more attention. Sir Henry Segrave was a First World War veteran, a three-time land speed record-holder, first man past 200mph, and the first person to simultaneously hold the water and land speed records. So he had nuts the size of Jupiter.

Segrave’s first LSR of 152mph (245km/h) came in March 1926 but he got far more serious in 1927 with the 1000hp Sunbeam “Mystery”, which used two 22.4L V12 aero engines and a chain-drive to push Segrave to a new record of 203mph (327km/h) on Daytona Beach, Florida.

1929’s Sunbeam Golden Arrow also broke the LSR on Daytona Beach. Widely credited as the first properly streamline-designed LSR car, Golden Arrow used a 925hp naturally aspirated 23.9L Napier Lion W12 aero engine to reset the record to 231mph (372km/h). Segrave was killed in 1930 attempting to break the Water Speed Record.

Fellow countryman Sir Malcolm Campbell was arguably the King of Speed in this era, setting his first LSR in 1924 and going on to hold nine LSRs in total between 1924 and 1935. He pushed the record from 146mph (235km/h) up to 301mph (484km/h), and he saw a notable change from running LSR attempts on tidal beaches to salt flats.

Driving huge aero-engined monsters all named Blue Bird, Campbell pushed the design and engineering of LSR cars, especially with the 1931 Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird. Powered by a 1470hp supercharged Napier Lion W12 this car broke 250mph, before Campbell brought out the 2300hp supercharged 36.7L Rolls-Royce-powered Campbell-Railton Blue Bird, which finally broke the 300mph barrier in 1935 at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Campbell also set four WSRs, and his son Donald followed him by chasing LSR and WSR titles. Unusually Sir Malcolm died at home in 1948 of natural causes, unlike many of his contemporaries or even his son.

Obviously everyone was fairly busy with far more serious matters from the late 1930s until the mid-40s, so it wasn’t until later in that decade that people started getting itchy feet for a new Land Speed Record. The record had been lifted to a sniff over 400mph, but it was in the early ‘60s things got wild.
Between September 1963 and November 1965 three Americans pushed the Land Speed Record from 400mph to over 600mph, trading record runs days and weeks apart. Craig Breedlove duelled with a pair of half-brothers from Ohio, Walt and Art Arfons, for the fastest 3-way in history.

Breedlove's car, the gorgeous Spirit of America, wasn't technically a car but a 3-wheeled jet-propelled sled. So his first record of 407mph (655km/h, and the first over 400mph) in September '63 wasn't accredited by the FIA as his car didn't have 4 wheels and didn't drive 2 of them.

Walt Arfons and Tom Green (not the guy from Freddy Got Fingered) took Breedlove's record on October 2nd 1964 with the Wingfoot Express. With a Westinghouse J46 jet engine Green ran a 2-way average of 413mph (664km/h).

Three days later (Oct 5) Walt's half-brother Art's Green Monster averaged 434mph (698km/h). Art bought the GE J79 jet engine from an F-104 Starfighter for $600 because it had swallowed a bolt and was deemed scrap. Despite not having any manuals for the top secret engine he pulled it apart himself, working out which of the 1000 blades he needed to remove to keep it balanced, then he tied it to a tree in his backyard to test it. As you do.

On October 15 Breedlove brought the Spirit of America back to Bonneville and stomped the 500mph barrier, averaging 526mph (846km/h). After losing his parachute he also set the record for the longest skid marks (8km), landing in a salt brine pond at 200mph. Breedlove climbed out uninjured and joked, "now for my next trick, i'll set myself on fire!" Less than a fortnight later Art Arfons retook the record, averaging 536mph (863km/h). Breedlove started working on a new car, the 4-wheeled Spirit Of America Sonic 1.

While Art Arfons raised his own LSR to 576mph (927km/h) Breedlove ended the war on November 15, 1965 running an average of 600mph (966km/h) and the LSR wasn't touched next until 1970.