How Speed Records Are Broken

Speaker: Campbell, Sir Malcolm
Date: 3 Mar 1932
Introduced by: Drew, Lieut.-Colonel George A. President, The Empire Club of Canada
Published in: The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1932
(Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club of Canada, 1932) pp. 103-113

Campbell-Napier-Railton Blue Bird 1931 Redesigned by Reid Railton and powered by a supercharged 900-hp Napier engine, developing 1,450-hp, this version of the car had an offset prop shaft and gearbox, to give Campbell a lower driving position alongside the gearbox, as well as improved streamlining. It had a new gearbox and the fairings around the wheels were increased in size. Mechanical alterations were made by Thomson and Taylor's, the new body made by Gurney, Nutting's. First trials were at Daytona Beach, Florida in 1931. The first record was 246.09 mph at Daytona Beach on 5th February, 1931. This same car with minor modifications and an new nose/cowling assembly set another new record of 253.97 mph at Daytona Beach on 24th February, 1932.

LiEUT.-COLONEL GEORGE A. DREW, the President, introduced the speaker, who was welcomed by Hon. Mr. Henry, Prime Minister of Ontario.

SIR MALCOLM CAMPBELL: It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity of paying my respects to this great city of yours. It also gives me the utmost pleasure to have the privilege of addressing this most distinguished gathering here today. The journey to Toronto has necessitated three nights on the train by the time 1 return to New York tomorrow morning, and 1 can only say that 1 would gladly have covered double or treble that distance to have the honour of being entertained by this great club of yours. (Applause.)

When I first received this invitation a few days ago to be present here today, I made up my mind to come at all costs, if it could possibly be fitted in in the short space of time 1 had available before returning to England, because your club here is world renowned, and the Empire Club of Canada means so much. What I mean by that, and mean to infer, is that the very word "Empire" to us at home means everything.

Great Britain will always regard Canada as her offspring, and will bestow on her that same affection which every mother bestows on her son, and that affection will continue forever, as long as the years go by, even though that son has grown to maturity. (Applause.)

'This son--Canada--has now made a way in the world for himself, and the huge success it has made leads me to say that Great Britain herself has a constant desire to share with Canada her joys and sorrows alike. (Applause.)

We in Great Britain at the present time are going through very troublesome times which entail tremendous sacrifices from all sides, but believe me, my dear friends, we are going to weather the storm-we will pull through (Applause), and I can assure you that the spirit of our people at home is better today than it has ever been before. (Applause.) We do, however, during these difficult times require your sympathy, which I am sure we have absloutely and entirely. (Applause.) There is a slogan which we should all adopt, both on this side of the Atlantic and the other, and that is "Community within the Empire", and today, with the speeding up of methods of transport, it means that distance becomes no objective whatever, which in turn means closer contact, closer friendships, and a still better possible feeling. (Applause.)

As an ordinary man in the street, and being no politician whatever, it occurs to me that it is possible-although it may not be-to cement and rivet Canada to Great Britain even closer than it is today. Tremendous advantages will occur not only to Great Britain, but to Canada herself, by so doing. (Applause.) Now, there are quite a number of people in the world who are of the opinion that the Mother Country is becoming effete. 1 can assure you that no statement is further from the truth than that, and I think you will all agree with me when I say that the very fact that Great Britain holds the land, water and air speed records definitely proves that our engineers are second to none in the world. (Applause.) And unless those engineers can produce 'the very best possible, the machines which captured those various records could never have possibly gained the world's honours (Applause.)

Now, I think that that car of mine, the Blue Bird is rather a remarkable testimony of the superiority of British workmanship and material, especially when it is considered that the car is over eight years old, and going better today than it has ever gone before. (Applause. Laughter.) Believe me, at the present time our manufacturers at home realize what cars are needed in the overseas dominions, and there are a number of our manufacturers who are producing cars which will absolutely meet any troubles under all conditions which you have around you in this part of the world.

Now, I would like to give you a brief history of this scar, because it is, in my opinion, somewhat unique. We commenced building her as long ago as 1924, just over eight years ago, and it was designed to reach a maximum speed of only 180 miles per hour-three miles per minute. She has already reached a maximum speed of 267 miles per hour. A moment ago your Chairman put an idea into my head, to go after a new record at five miles per hour. (Laughter.) It is possible, if you have not got suitable track for a speed of 250 or 260 miles per hour, you may be able to find me one somewhere here where we can go for this new record. (Laughter.) The first engine which was employed in the Blue Bird .was a Napier engine giving off approximately 500 horse power. We have rebuilt it today so that it gives off about 1,500 horse power. That speaks for the quality of British manufacture and material, to be able to take out a 500 horse power engine and put in its place one giving off 1,500 horse power.

I would like at this stage to mention something about the power plant. It is all British, of course, like everything else in the car. The first engine, as I said before, gave off approximately 500 horse power, and weighed about 790 pounds. The engine which we have today outwardly looks the same, weighs only 1,140 pounds, and gives off just under 1,500 horse power; in other words, well under one pound of weight per horse power. That is a marvelous achievement for the British manufacturers to have accomplished in a space of only about five years, and it shows how our engineers are progressing at home today. The first record which the Blue Bird achieved was at Pentang, in Wales, at a speed of just under 175 miles per hour.

The car was more or less home built in my small workshop at home, but after the record was accomplished, my late friend and great sportsman, Sir Henry Segrave, came out with a one thousand horse power car, and put the record up to 203 miles per hour. Now, in motor racing you must be determined or it is just as well to let the pastime alone. 1 shall never forget my feeling, having taken two years to build the car, at a rather large cost, and having got the record, to realize that within a month, I had lost it, the speed then being so high as to be beyond the capabilities of that car. In other words, within a month it was out of date. (Laughter.)

But we were determined to carry on, so we rebuilt the car once more. We took out the old engine of 500 horse power, and we put in the Napier, giving off 940 horse power, and we came out to Daytona in 1928 and succeeded in putting the record up to 207 miles an hour. Then, three months later, the American Ray Keale, beat the record by one-half mile, and 1 spent the rest of that year looking for another place where a record could be attempted, because Daytona in the summer months is not as suitable owing to the softness of the sand.

In 1929 we altered the car again and put on a different body, and we went out to South Africa. I was very keen to try out the car on the inland courses, because obviously, although Daytona Beach is a wonderful stretch of sand, you can realize that the surface may vary from day to day, and you may have to wait weeks for a favourable opportunity, and you have not got very much time to accomplish the record between high and low tide. The course must be marked, and the timing apparatus must be installed, and if you have one had bump in the middle of the course,, it is highly dangerous.

So, as I say, I went out to South Africa in 1929 and made an attempt on the world's record on a dried-up desert lake, but we ran into such tremendous difficulties, which it was almost impossible to foresee-and in the meantime my friend Sir Henry Segrave had visited Daytona with a brand new car and put the speed up to 231 miles an hour-and we struggled on in South Africa. I was out there over six months, and when the course was nearly finished, phenomonal rains fell, which put off our attempts and ruined all the work and money we had spent on preparing the surface. But we finally got the five mile and five kilometres record at 211 miles per hour and 216 miles per hour respectively, which have stood until the other day, when the. Blue Bird improved upon them.

Then in 1930 we decided to still carry on, and the whole of the season, of 1930 was spent in remodelling the Blue Bird once more.

I do not know whether it would interest you gentlemen to tell you how we managed to increase the speed, but I will take a chance and tell you roughly what we did.

The propeller shaft-had always been in the centre of the chassis, and the driver had to sit above this propeller shaft, which meant there was a big windage, and as the windage increases with the square of the speed, you could imagine how important it was to cut down the wind resistance to a minimum. So, in 1930, to overcome this obstacle, which was inherent in the original design of the car, we off-set the propeller shaft to enable the driver to sit between that shaft and the chassis frame, and get the whole body much lower down, thus decreasing the tremendous resistance.

We removed the old engine and put in this 1,500 horsepower Napier super-charged motor, and came out to Daytona last February and succeeded in putting up a figure of 246 miles per hour.

Well, conditions were not too bad last year, but the beach was heavy, visibility was none too good, and I felt sure that the old car was capable, even in its present state, of increasing that figure by quite a margin, and that was one of the reasons why 1 came over here again this year to have another attempt. Now, I would like to inform you about these world records and what one has to do. You have to go in both directions, and both runs have to be made in one hour of one another. Of course, that is a very fair rule, because if you only had to go one way, obviously the driver would wait until a very high wind was blowing, to get the full advantage of it, whereas, as you have to go in both directions, whatever you gain by velocity of the wind is more than lost when you come up against it.

That is rather interesting and we are learning so much every time we go out. One soon learns to realize what little one really does know of the game. This last time, when I made my attempt on the world's record, on the 24th of February, the wind was blowing obliquely across the course, and had an estimated velocity of 40 miles an hour. When we went with the wind, we travelled 267 miles per hour, but coming up against it the best we could do was about 241. Now, an average is taken between these two speeds, and the average on that day was the record which now stands, of 253 miles per hour odd.

Of course, luck plays a tremendous part in all these proceedings, as it does in anything else of that kind, and to get the most out of the car, especially at the speed we were travelling, we required one hundred per cent. condition; otherwise it is impossible. You must have a surface as smooth as the proverbial billiard table; you want no wind, good visibility and perfect atmospheric conditions. If the atmosphere is heavy it is possible to lose as much as 50 horse power on account of it.

Then again, with regard to this smoothness of the course. If the car, travelling at a speed of over 200 miles per hour, hits a bump it may jump anywhere from 20 to 30 to 60 feet. While I was in South Africa, where we had insufficient funds to smooth out the course, which was a dried-up mud lake, 1 had several jumps in my car, the longest of which was 45 feet. Now, when you come to think of it, a car leaping 40 feet, it is a wonder that the tires and the machinery can stand the strains and stresses. That is why I am so frightfully proud of my car, because it has had all of these knocks during all these years, and is still better than ever. (Applause.)

Speaking about the wind, I have more or less foundand I do not say this is accurate, but it is the impression 1 have gained-that when you go at these speeds with the wind, you are travelling so much faster than when the wind is not blowing, but the most you can gain by the wind velocity is probably not more than 50 per cent. It really is less. But I reckon it is roughly about onethird. For example, in travelling with a 30-mile wind you can roughly estimate you are increasing your speed by about 10 miles an hour but when you come up against the wind you are losing from two-thirds to three fourths of that velocity, so you can well imagine how important it is when making these attempts to drive on a perfectly still day. On both days in Daytona the wind was blowing more or less at the same velocity, but unfortunately there were many ripples all the way along the course of the beach, which gave the car a tremendous amount of wheel spin, and knocked off a lot of its speed, and in consequence the car was not doing its best an that occasion, and was certainly not very easy to control. When I come up against the wind, especially if it is oblique, the force of the wind is trying to force you off your course, and you must fight against that wind the whole time.

An interesting point is this: if you heard that the record stood, as it does at the present time, at 246 miles per hour, and you went out and put it up to 257 miles per hour, you would say, 'What a marvelous achievement." But if on the other hand, you were told the last record had been beaten by merely a second, you would think, "that is nothing at all" But at 240 miles an hour, it means a mile in fifteen seconds, and a mile in fourteen seconds is 257 3/10ths miles per hour. So we are bucking against 1/5th and 1/10th of a second, and the feeling of the driver when going over the course is one of anxiety to get over that mile in the shortest space of time, and the driver realizes that any slight deviation from his course, any wheel spin, or anything of that kind will knock him oft one-fifth of a second, and that is all the difference between failure and success. (Applause.)

I am always being asked about my impressions of speed. I have never really had any great impressions to describe. 1 never have any anxiety in regard to safety or anything like that, but one is obviously keyed up, because one is so anxious, as I have said, to do something, and it is more easy to fail than to succeed, and there are so many things coming into the picture which may prevent success.

Of course there is the thrill one possibly gets out of it, although one's mind is so much occupied in very deep concentration that one has not much time to visualize the sensations in the enormous acceleration possessed by a car of that nature. You may well imagine sitting behind an engine, perfectly balanced, giving off 1,500 horse power; when you let that loose, you can imagine that the rush through the air is something which almost beggars description. I believe it would he easier to 'imagine yourselves in a hall and being thrown through space, but there is no feeling of danger, because so far as my own car is concerned, it is perfectly constructed,, and perfectly controlled, as long, of course, as the surface :and conditions are right. When the conditions are wrong, then it does become a very great danger.

Then, too, your mind is so occupied with the details of handling the car. I have a revolutions speedometer on the car which tells me what the car is doing at any given instant.

The greatest difficulty is the slowing down process. If a tire happened to, go on one end of a measured course, one would have to decelerate very slowly, because if you take your foot off suddenly the tort reaction is so great that it will send a car into a skid and out of control. It means that whatever happens to the car at any time, you must not lose your head and do anything with a sudden movement. It is the same with the steering. If you suddenly find your car going off the course, as I did, and if you pull at the steering wheel, and then begin getting excited and give it a violent pull around, disaster will be staring you in the face. You must do everything quite gently and never get excited about it. (Laughter and applause.) You must remember that once you have crossed the measured mile and have gradually removed your foot from the accelerator, you require roughly about five miles in which to pull the car up, (Applause.) and one gets the feeling then, for the first mile or two, when gradually reducing your speed from 240 to 230, 220, 200 and on down, you feel that you are entirely at the mercy of the car, because it is a hopeless proposition to put on your brakes. You know the course is clear, but you sometimes wonder whether you can pull up in time. That is the sensation one really gets; the question of impotency to pull the car up quickly after having reached the highest speed. On this last occasion, on a Friday, when we went for the long-distance record as well as the short ones, it necessitated driving the car, with a full throttle for a very much longer distance than 1 ever have previously done, and it also meant slowing down over a longer course than previously. The only instance of excitement which occurred during the two days 1 was running at Daytona last week was the fact that when I was going at least 250 miles an hour, and was nearly at the end of the ten kilometer course, my goggles became clouded over, and I could see less than one hundred yards in front of the car. That definitely. was unpleasant, but down there the organization is so, good that I realized there was no possibility of anything being in my way. Therefore I carried on. (Applause.) That was the only little bit of unpleasantness which occurred during the whole time.

I am very proud of my car, gentlemen, as you can well imagine, and it is British down to the last nut and bolt. (Applause.) Any success which 1 have achieved in the past, or which any of us have previously achieved, is due obviously, nine-tenths of it-or ninety-nine out of one hundred parts of it, to those fellows at home who make the parts, because without that perfect machine it would be impossible to do anything, and I merely regard myself as one link in an extraordinarily strong chain. (Applause.) For example, my mechanics are the finest and most loyal set of mechanics you could possibly have, who have worked day and night to prepare that car; and I have such faith in them and faith in, the car itself that I never worry m the least.

Now, the question of tires. Well, your President said something about tires bursting. May 1 say this? On the Blue Bird we use British tires, and we do not worry about bursts. (Applause.) Gentlemen, there is a great moral in that to you. (Applause.)

I hope I am not boring you, gentlemen. (Applause.)

Another point which is often raised by various people is the fact that they wonder what type of car this is, and whether it is more or less orthodox or not. Some people think you get into the car, half dope yourself, lock your steering, and trust to the Lord. (Applause.) 1 can only tell you my car is absolutely orthodox. It has a three-speed gear box and reverse. It has an ordinary clutch pedal, not worked by a vacuum, and a foot accelerator and a foot brake. The only thing is, that owing to the speed and the weight, the brakes are not of much value at a speed of over 100 miles an hour; otherwise it is all right. (Laughter.) The steering is quite orthodox; there is a lock on it, and I drive in the ordinary way, as you do in driving from place to place.

Now, I have often been asked, "Why do you make a habit of going after all these records?" "What inducement is there to do it"? and so forth, and so on.

The reason--really the prime reason, I am sure, with me-is the question of the joy of achievement, to set yourself a task and to overcome whatever difficulties crop up, and then eventually to get there, and believe me, it is a great joy when one can do that.

I always set myself a certain task to perform when going out for these records, and if I do not reach that particular goal, I do not feel happy with myself, and, frankly, I do not mind admitting I was not too pleased with the results achieved the other day, because I feel sure that my car is capable of a higher speed, but as I said before so much depends upon luck, because you must have the one hundred per cent conditions before the very best can be accomplished. It is also very gratifying indeed when these attempts are successful to realize that it is a testimony for British goods (Hear, hear), and after all, gentlemen, the reputation of the Old Country is the same as it ever has been before, that is, we have a reputation for building the very best, the goods which last for an indefinite period. (Applause.)

Might I once more suggest to you in all sincerity that our manufacturers at home are building cars suitable for your country, and that these cars will last far more years than any other cars built anywhere else in the world. (Applause.) It also occurs to me that these days where we have to look after finances, that it might be better to buy a British car which lasts two or three years, rather than other ones which have to be discarded at the end of the year.

Then, of course, comes the question of research, when' tackling experimental work, and the altering of a design of a car is highly interesting to us, as there is a very great deal to be learned in the process. For instance, in altering the Blue Bird from the original 180 miles up to the point where she has gone very much faster than any speed we ever originally anticipated, and as 1 said before, I think there is still a bit more in the old car yet. (Laughter; applause.)

Gentlemen, I will now end my talk, but I thank you most sincerely and cordially for the wonderful reception you have given me, and I shall return to England with the most wonderful feeling of Toronto, and of this marvelous British spirit which is prevailing in this great city of yours. (Prolonged applause.)