By: IOL Motoring Staff
Pendine, Carmarthenshire - Ninety years ago on Tuesday, Malcolm Campbell became the first person to drive a car at more than 240km/h.
And on Tuesday, his grandson commemorated what was at the time an amazing feat by driving the same car (somewhat more slowly) over the same stretch of hard-packed beach at Pendine Sands.
Don Wales, who is also a world speed record holder *, and the workshop team from the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, which now owns the original Sunbeam Blue Bird, also recreated three iconic images from the original run.
Malcolm Campbell's first Blue Bird was the brainchild of Sunbeam chief engineer and race team manager Louis Coatalen. It was built at company's works in Wolverhampton during 1919 and early 1920, using a modified 18.322 litre V12 Manitou Arab naval aircraft.
After Lee Guinness set a world speed record of 214km/h in the Sunbeam at Brooklands, he sold it to Campbell, who renamed it Blue Bird, painted it in his distinctive blue and, in September 1924, thundered across the Pendine Sands at 235.22km/h to set the first of his world speed records.
THE TARGET WAS 150MPH
But the target was 240 - 150 miles per hour in the old terms - and that was achieved on July 21, 1925. Campbell later pushed the car to a thundering 281.44km/h, but that was as fast as it could go, so it was sold to make way for the second Blue Bird.
Powered by a 24-litre Napier Lion aero engine, this set a new benchmark of 398.025km/h (250 miles per hour) at Verneukpan, South Africa in February 1931, which earned Campbell legendary status and a knighthood. Finally, with a 36-litre Rolls-Royce V12 driving double rear wheels, it was timed at 484.598m/h (300mph) on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, in September 1935.
But the car that started it all went through a number of owners before it was bought by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu for his museum in 1957 and restored to running order. The last time it was driven was in July 1962, but when it was started in 1993 to assess the engine's condition, a blocked oil way caused it to seize and break a con rod.
Finally repaired in the museum's workshop, it was fired up in public for the first time in 50 years in January 2014, as part of the preparations for the 90th anniversary celebration.
*Wales holds the world speed record for steam cars at 238.679km/h.