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Silver Bullet (Sunbeam Land Speed Record Car)
The Sunbeam ''Silver Bullet'' was the last attempt at the land speed record by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton. It was built in 1929 for Kaye Don. Powered by two supercharged engines of 24 litres each, it looked impressive but failed to achieve any records. Sunbeam's 1927 200 mph land speed record won with the Sunbeam 1000HP had been broken by 1929, and the company decided to build a car capable of reaching so as to recover it. Only aero engines offered enough power to do this, and such a car would also provide a test bed for developing a new generation of Sunbeam aero-engines. Sunbeam 2,000 hp engine Sunbeam decided to develop a new aero engine of , and the car would be powered by two of them. This new engine was a water-cooled V-12 with a 50° angle between the banks. Ideal balance usually favours an angle of 60°, but this choice made the engine narrower overall. Cylinder bore was and stroke was , for a capacity of 24.02 litres. This oversquare geometry was a first f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunbeam Motor Car Company
Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer with its works at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. Its Sunbeam name had been registered by John Marston in 1888 for his bicycle manufacturing business. Sunbeam motor car manufacture began in 1901. The motor business was sold to a newly incorporated Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited in 1905 to separate it from Marston's pedal bicycle business; Sunbeam motorcycles were not made until 1912. In-house designer Louis Coatalen had an enthusiasm for motor racing accumulated expertise with engines. Sunbeam manufactured their own aero engines during the First World War and 647 aircraft to the designs of other manufacturers. Engines drew Sunbeam into Grand Prix racing and participation in the achievement of world land speed records. In spite of its well-regarded cars and aero engines, by 1934 a long period of particularly slow sales had brought continui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JCB Dieselmax
The JCB Dieselmax is a diesel-engined 'streamliner' car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle. The car was built for JCB, a British multinational equipment company. As of 2018, the car holds the world diesel-powered land speed record, having been driven to over by Wing Commander Andy Green in 2006. Design The car is powered by two specially-tuned versions of the production JCB444 powerplant, developing up to each (over five times the power output of the production version with 90 psi (6 bar) of boost) and featuring four cylinders and 5 litres of displacement, accompanied by two stage turbochargers, intercooler and aftercooler. One of the dual engines drives the front wheels while the other drives the rear. Each engine is rev-limited to 3800 rpm. As the size of the car prohibited meaningful wind tunnel testing, the streamlined shape of the car was refined entirely through the use of computational fluid dy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunbeam Tiger (1925)
The Sunbeam Tiger is a racing car, built by Sunbeam of Wolverhampton during the 1920s. It was the last car to be competitive both as a land speed record holder, and as a circuit-racing car. Design and engine The chassis and bodywork of the Sunbeam were conventional for racing cars of their time. The car's novelty lay with its engine. Sunbeam's 1925 Grand Prix engine had been a successful 2-litre straight-6 twin-overhead-cam. This car was to use a pair of the same block and head arrangements, mated to a single 75° vee crankcase to produce a 3,976 cc V12. Supercharging brought the power up to . Land Speed Records Henry Segrave was so keen to test the new car and engine that he took it to Brooklands in September 1925, still unpainted. A half-mile speed of was recorded. Minor works, including the bright red paint still notable today, were done over the winter. Spring 1926 saw Segrave on the wide, flat beach at Southport. On 16 March 1926, with little fuss and few spectat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish Sea coast and is fringed to the north by the Ribble estuary. The town is north of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the town was founded in 1792 when William Sutton, an innkeeper from Churchtown, built a bathing house at what is now the south end of Lord Street.''North Meols and Southport – a History'', Chapter 9, Peter Aughton (1988) At that time, the area, known as South Hawes, was sparsely populated and dominated by sand dunes. At the turn of the 19th century, the area became popular with tourists due to the easy access from the nearby Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The rapid growth of Southport largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Depression In The United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression. It was Britain's largest and most profound economic depression of the 20th century. The Great Depression originated in the United States in late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain did not experience the boom that had characterized the U.S., Germany, Canada and Australia in the 1920s, so its effect appeared less severe.H. W. Richardson, "The Economic Significance of the Depression in Britain," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1970) 4#4 pp. 3–1in JSTOR/ref> Britain's world trade fell by half (1929–33), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment. However at the same time, it is important to consider that from 1929 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pendine Sands
Pendine Sands ( cy, Traeth Pentywyn) is a beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches west to east from Gilman Point to Laugharne Sands. The village of Pendine ( cy, Pentywyn, link=no) is close to the western end of the beach. In the early 1900s the sands were used as a venue for car and motor cycle races. From 1922 the annual Welsh TT motor cycle event was held here. The firm, flat surface of the beach created a race track that was straighter and smoother than many major roads of the time. '' Motor Cycle'' magazine described the sands as "the finest natural speedway imaginable". Classic record attempts In the 1920s it became clear that roads and race tracks were no longer adequate venues for attempts on the world land speed record. As record-breaking speeds approached 150 mph (240 km/h), the requirements for acceleration to top speed before the measured mile and safe braking distance afterwards meant that a smooth, flat, straight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daytona Beach Road Course
The Daytona Beach and Road Course was a race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It originally became famous as the location where 15 world land speed records were set. Beach and road course Track layout The course started on the pavement of highway A1A (at 4511 South Atlantic Avenue, Ponce Inlet ). A restaurant named "Racing's North Turn" now stands at that location. It went south parallel to the ocean on A1A (S. Atlantic Ave) to the end of the road, where the drivers accessed the beach at the south turn at the Beach Street approach , returned north on the sandy beach surface, and returned to A1A at the north turn. The lap length in early events was , and it was lengthened to in the late 1940s. In the video game ''NASCAR Thunder 2004'' by EA Sports, the course is shortened to about half its distance, but still shows how the basic course was set up. Early events March 29, 1927 Major Henry Segrave and his Sunbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird
The Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird was a land speed record car driven by Malcolm Campbell. After Henry Segrave's Golden Arrow, clearly a more powerful engine was required for ''Blue Bird'', with a chassis and transmission to handle it. A supercharged Napier Lion VIID was used, with over three times the power of the previous Blue Bird and a large premium over Golden Arrow's unsupercharged Lion VIIA. This was not the first use of supercharging for Land Speed Record cars, but was the first combining supercharging with the large displacement aero engines that had previously been relied upon for their gross output. Golden Arrow's innovative vertical aerodynamic stabilising fin was also used, a first for Campbell. Campbell's nemesis Segrave was killed in an attempt on the water speed record while Campbell was scouting for new record courses in South Africa. On his return, Campbell set off for Daytona with the new ''Blue Bird'', concerned at American challenges to the record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm Campbell
Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeam. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by holding both land speed and water speed records. Early life and family Campbell was born on 11 March 1885 in Chislehurst, Kent, the only son of William Campbell, a Hatton Garden diamond seller. He attended the independent Uppingham School. In Germany, learning the diamond trade, he gained an interest in motorbikes and races. Returning to Britain, he worked for two years at Lloyd's of London for no pay, then for another year at £1 a week. Between 1906 and 1908, he won all three London to Land's End Trials motorcycle races. In 1910, he began racing cars at Brooklands. He christened his car ''Blue Bird'', painting it blue, after seeing the play '' The Blue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Segrave
Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave (22 September 1896 – 13 June 1930) was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneously and the first person to travel at over in a land vehicle. He died in an accident in 1930 shortly after setting a new world water speed record on Windermere in the Lake District, England. The Segrave Trophy was established to commemorate his life. Early life Segrave, who was a British national, was born on 22 September 1896 in Baltimore, Maryland, to an American mother and an Irish father. He was raised in Ireland and attended Eton College in England. He spent some time at 'Belle Isle' house, near Portumna and learnt to drive the family houseboat. He is reported to have attended the North Shannon Yacht Club regatta on Lough Boderg between Leitrim and Roscommon. First World War At the outbreak of war the Sandhurst officer training cour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Coatalen
Louis Hervé Coatalen (11 September 1879 – 23 May 1962) was an automobile engineer and racing driver born in Brittany who spent much of his adult life in Britain and took British nationality. He was a pioneer of the design and development of internal combustion engines for cars and aircraft. France Coatalen, the second son of J Coatalen, was born in the Breton fishing town of Concarneau / Konk-Kerne and went on to study engineering at Arts et Métiers ParisTech, in the town of Cluny (France). Career After serving his apprenticeship with De Dion-Bouton, Clément and Panhard et Levasseur he left France to work in England in 1900. After a short time with the Crowden Motor Car Company he joined Humber Limited in 1901Obituary M. Louis Coatalen. ''The Times'', Friday, 25 May 1962; p. 18; Issue 55400 and was to become their chief engineer. He designed their 8-10 and 10-12 models. They were highly successful but their design was, unusually for Coatalen, totally conventional.W O Bent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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