John Godfrey Parry Thomas - BABS

John Godfrey Parry-Thomas died in a tragic land speed record attempt in 1927. He was the son of a vicar and born in Wrexham in April 1884. He was fascinated with engineering and studied the subject at college in London.

Above, BABS fully restored on Pendine Sands.  Below left, a large crowd gathers after the fatal crash.  Below right, The of remains of BABS are prepaired for removal.
Above, the extensive fire damage is quiet evident in  this shot.  Below left, BABS is towed to her final resting place.  Below right, BABS prior to burial in the dunes.
BABS Technical Specifications  1918 V12 27 litre Liberty Aero engine  Chassis based on a chain drive Mercedes  Gearbox: Blitzen Benz crash  Number of cylinders: 24  Number of gears: 3  Maximum RPM: 2,000 r.p.m.  Supercharged: no  Number of plugs: 24  Top speed: 172 m .p.h.  Wheels: 23"  Tyres: 5"  Weight: 35cwts  Fuel: 60% aviation spirit  40% Benzole fuel  Tank Capacity: 45 gallons  Fuel Consumption: 4 m.p.g.  Brake Efficiency: medium (no front brakes)  Note: Held 1926 Class A Five Mile Record at 124.25 m.p.h

After numerous jobs he became the chief Engineer at Leyland Motors. Leyland Motors investigated the possibility of building a massive luxury car. The imposing motorcar, the Leyland Eight, was dubbed the 'Lion of Olympia' when shown at the 1920 Motor show in London. The cars were expensive and only eight were built. John Parry-Thomas tested each Leyland Eight to 100 mph before delivery.

Despite the considerable reservations of the Leyland directors, Parry-Thomas raced one of the Leylands at Brooklands and persuaded Leylands to enter into a racing programme.

When this was discontinued he decided to go it alone, took up permanent residence at Brooklands in a cottage on the grounds, and hired Ken Taylor, later of Thomson and Taylor to assist him in producing a number of Leyland-Thomas racing specials. In 1924 and 1925 he broke the lap record in one of these cars, raising it on 1st June 1925 to 129.36 m.p.h. Previously the record had stood at 123.39 m.p.h. which Kennelm Lee Guinness had set in a Sunbeam in 1922.

He went on to build smaller four cylinder cars winning the 1925 News of the World handicap in one of these which in turn were followed by the straight eight supercharged flat iron specials, so called because of their very low front ends.

The racing world at this time had many famous characters including Count Zborowski who later died at Monza in 1924. Parry-Thomas was able to buy a potential record breaking car, the Higham Special from Zorowski's estate for £125.00. It was fitted with a 27,059 cc Liberty Aero engine, Benz gearbox and featured a chain final drive.

The car was originally built in 1923 by Count Louis Zborowski as the fourth of his Aero engined Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang cars. Being the last and the largest he named it the Higham Special.

The car was named 'Babs' and after carrying out a considerable amount of work he took it to Pendine for a crack at the landspeed record. This was in October 1925 but the weather precluded any chance of a record breaking run. To cap it all Henry Segrave posted a speed of 152.33 mph. In April 1926 Babs was transported back to Pendine at Shell-Mex's expense for another attempt. After a couple of warm-up runs Parry-Thomas achieved a speed of 169.30. A day later he pushed the record over the 170 mph mark. Campbell was among those who sportingly congratulated Parry-Thomas and, in the nature of the challenge, he prepared his own car for another attempt on the record. In January 1927 he achieved a top speed of 174.883 mph.

As the competition for the record increased Parry-Thomas wanted another crack at it; he knew Henry Segrave was to attempt a run for 200 mph, in Florida. He arrived back in Pendine, unwell with 'Flu', in March 1927 and with the assistance of Shell and Dunlop staff began to prepare the car for a run on the beach. After the usual start and warm up procedures had been followed he set off up the beach on a timed run. The car skidded, turned over and over and then slewed round to face the sea. The scene for those first to arrive was not pretty, Parry-Thomas was still in the car, partially decapitated and burned. the car was on fire and in order to retrieve the body from the blazing wreck two of Parry-Thomas's crew had the unpleasant task of breaking the legs of the corpse before the fire prevented them reaching it. The coroner's verdict was accidental death and Parry-Thomas was buried in Surrey. The car was buried in a big hole on the beach and that was thought to be the end of the story.

However, in March 1969, 42 years after the car was buried, the car was dug up by Owen Wyn Owen, a Technical College lecturer for North Wales. Having restored other cars he thought it would be nice to get some pieces of the car to display in a museum as a tribute to Thomas. The car was, however, more complete than imagined, but was badly damaged as a result of the accident and 42 years of salt water had corroded all the aluminium. The car is now restored and on display at Pendine.