A BRITISH CAR'S RECORDS
By DUDLEY NOBLE
IT is refreshing to find Britain once more in the record-breaking class. The performance that the Austin car and its crew recently put up in America is all the more satisfactory because it was carried out in the heart of the " enemy's " country. Not, of course, that when I use the word " enemy " I mean it in a serious sense. The Americans, by their sporting attitude towards this Austin effort, showed themselves anything but enemies ; their co-operative assistance could hardly have been warmer. Without it, indeed, the whole affair would have to have been abandoned. The prime mover in this heartening achievement was Mr. Alan Hess, the enterprising public relations chief of the Austin firm, who told me nearly three months ago in a private letter of the scheme that, as the world knows, has now come to fruition. " We plan," wrote Hess " to take an Austin A.90 Atlantic Convertible over to Indianapolis to attack American Stock Car records for seven days and seven nights. This will be the first time any British car has ever attacked these records, and we are hopeful that we shall be able to establish somewhere in the region of two dozen new records under the noses of our American friends." Hess went on to say that the project started off as an Austin publicity effort but that, as plans matured, it became quite evident that it was assuming some degree of national importance. Many people, he said, believed that, if it should prove successful, British prestige would be greatly enhanced, and they would go some way towards atoning for Britain's sorry lack of prominence among the finalists at last year's Olympic Games. So it has turned out.
Now to expect a car to keep on running, at a speed quite close to its maximum, for one complete week on end, requires not only a lot of optimism but a lot of experience, too. While it may be true that hope springs eternal in the human breast, when it comes to garnering experience of the capabilities of his product, the British motor manufacturer has hitherto been faced with a problem. (I say hitherto, because the matter has now been rectified.) In the old days there was a motor race-track in Britain called Brooklands. Built in 1907 by a sporting-minded motoring enthusiast, Mr. Locke- King, Brooklands track served the nascent motor industry well and faithfully for more than 3o years. It provided not only a venue for race meetings but, on ordinary week-days, it was extensively used as a trial-ground for new designs and ideas. Unfortunately, its value as a course for prolonged speed-attempts, of the kind that the Austin Company has now successfully accomplished, was nullified by the petition of local residents against the noise, and an injunction was granted before the First World War which rendered the track unusable during the night. Since the last war, however, even Brook- lands, with its limited value from the endurance test aspect, has been removed from the sphere of motoring.
The only alternative to Brooklands in recent years, has been Montlhery, the motor race-track near Paris, and British manu- facturers have been obliged to send their cars and personnel over to it in order to obtain data essential to the production of fast cars that would compete in world markets. Austins did, in fact, do what they could on Montlhery before deciding to attempt the American Stock Car records. But running round a foreign track, hundreds of miles from the factory, under improvised conditions is a very different thing from operating, perhaps, at Brooklands. Therefore, when the definite decision was taken to go ahead, it had to be made on the basis of only limited knowledge of the effects of day in, day out, running—and that is very different from even a twelve-hour sprint. It is not surprising, therefore, that the record attempts did not pro- ceed entirely according to plan. After about 24 hours' runnink, the engine suffered from overheating, and a fresh start had to be made after the necessary repairs were effected. This time things went better, although the weather took a turn for the worse, and it rained, snowed and sleeted. Indianapolis track, where the work was being done, is the only motor course in the United States, and is by no means a modern one. The surface is largely composed of bricks, which become slippery in adverse weather, added to which it was obligatory to keep the Austin an open car, in order to conform with the class of records being attacked. One may well imagine that the three drivers passed a somewhat unenjoyable week.
They took the wheel in three-hour shifts. Each man therefore had a six-hour rest after every driving spell. There were, of course, many more helpers from the staffs of Austins and the various accessory and equipment firms interested.
What were these records that have caused all the interest ? They were Stock Car records, which means, according to the rules of the American Automobile Association, the official supervising body, that they are the highest speeds that a standard car, selected from the stock of any dealer the length and breadth of the United States, can achieve over a given distance. There are distance records and period records, and altogether there are 53 of them, ranging as to distance from one kilometre and one mile up to 15,000 kilometres and 10,000 miles, and as to period from one hour to seven days. There are separate records for separate distances and separate periods, but all are taken concurrently by a car which travels fast enough for a sufficiently long period..
There are also separate classes, and a given car may break records in more than one class at one and the same time. In the case of the Austin, its displacement (engine capacity) of 162 cu. ins. rendered it eligible to take records in Class D (122 to 183 cu. in. displacement) and also in the unlimited displacement class, in the open car division of both classes. In the former class, no records had ever been set up in the open car division, while in the unlimited displacement class there were ten records standing to the credit of a Studebaker roadster, which had put them up in 1928 at an average speed varying between 68.58 and 68.85 m.p.h. The latter was, therefore, the highest speed -that the Austin had to maintain in order to be sure of becoming a record-breaker 63 times over.
I have already paid tribute to the sportsmanship shown by the Americans, and I would amplify this by mentioning that the A.A.A. waived that part of their rules which stipulated that a Stock Car should be selected from stock. In the present instance it would have been impossible to conform to this, seeing that there were nc Austin A.90 Atlantic Convertibles in stock anywhere in the U.S. The A.A.A. might, accordingly, have been within their rights in refusing to recognise a car brought specially over from Great Britain to attack their records. But they did nothing of the kind. They agreed at once, on condition that the car, after it had broken records, should be subjected to examination to determine whether it followed maker's specification throughout. This has been done, and the A.A.A. have set the seal of official confirmation on the Austin per- formance, stating that it averaged 70.54 m.p.h. for the longest record of t1,85o miles.
Now, as it happens, the problem of trying-out cars in this country for any future attempts on records and endurance tests is happily solved. British motor manufacturers at last have their own proving- ground, within easy reach of their factories, where they may conduct tests of whatever nature they please, over whatever distance or period they may select. This new course was formally opened on Thursday of this week by Mr. L. P. Lord, who is, besides being the head of Austins, the President of the Motor Industry Research Association. This Association is largely financed by the Society of Motor Manu- facturers and Traders, and has a well-equipped laboratory on the Great West Road, near Brentford, where numerous tests of an
"indoor ", nature are carried out on behalf of all the manufacturers, individually and collectively.
Recently, M.I.R.A. has obtained possession of the disused bomber airfield at Lindley, near Nuneaton, and has converted it into a proving ground for the motor industry, commercial vehicles as well as cars. I was greatly impressed with this when I visited it last week, and can well imagine that it will be a very busy place from now onwards. There are three separate circuits, of which the longest is nearly four miles round. There is also a 2,000 yard speed-track, with electrical timing equipment of the robot-eye type. Lindley, I feel sure, will play no mean 'part in providing data of the kind that motor manu- facturers in Britain have until now been prevented from securing on their home ground, giving assurance that our country's products will stand up to whatever demands are made on them, in no matter what part of the world.
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