Doug Nye: The lost land speed record contender

Land speed record breaking had become a huge part of the then-confined – but rapidly growing – British motor sporting scene. British challengers like Sir Malcolm Campbell, post-war his son Donald, Sir Henry Segrave, John Cobb, Captain George Eyston, Lt Col Goldie Gardner, Ernest Eldridge and J.G. Parry Thomas had really “done a number” on the nation’s psyche from the 1920s into the 1960s. Record breaking was regarded very much as a desperately dangerous journey into the unknown and the men who were ready and willing to commit themselves to the attempt – effectively strapping themselves, or even eschewing anything so pansy as straps, sitting themselves in one of these amazing rocket projectiles and blasting off towards the far horizon, were national heroes… no question.

One of the most pleasant and durable of all these British ‘Speed Kings’ was George Eyston. And back in August 1937 – eighty years ago now – ‘Motor Sport’ magazine announced that “Great Britain has produced yet another car with which to attack world’s flying start short distance records, or, in the eyes of all the non-technical world, to attempt to further raise the “motor car speed record” held by Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Rolls-Royce engined car, for this country, at 301mph. The new car is the work of Capt. George Edward Thomas Eyston and never before has anyone kept so stupendous a task so quiet. The daily press news hawks, who are usually quick to send motoring stories, even if not accurate in their presentation, only managed to get pictures of the partially-completed monster as Eyston sailed for America to inspect the Utah salt-lake course.

Eyston aims to raise the record to around 350mph, and as ‘Bluebird’ the present holder would require 50 per cent extra horsepower to realise this speed, in theory, the new car has ben given two engines of the make and type used by Sir Malcolm, so that double the power is available – or approximately 4,800 to 5,000bhp. It seems likely that to accommodate these two engines will necessitate a greater frontal area than that of the present record holder, but against this must be set the 100 per cent additional power. Cant. Eyston has chosen the make of engine that has figured in recent speed attempts of this nature on land and water and which is accepted as best for our control of the sky – Rolls-Royce…”.

This unassumingly patriotic piece continued to describe how the two Rolls-Royce V12 engines were mounted side by side behind the driver, and how they powered a central three-speed gearbox via a train of gears. The gearbox drove a bevel box mounted on the chassis frame and how the rear wheels were driven from that box by jointed shafts. Four wheels featured up front, all inter-connected for steering – like some of the famous four-wheel steering Foden lorries. Inboard-mounted drum brakes could slow the wheels via drive shafts to keep unsparing weight – already massive of course – to a minimum and to protect the vulnerable Dunlop high-speed tyres from the heat stress of hot brakes. Air brake flaps also featured at the great car’s tail.

The ‘Motor Sport’ piece then retreated into ‘car guy’ defensive mode – declaring “Eyston’s attempt will undoubtedly give rise to sceptical queries as to the value of these ultra high-speed dashes in freakish high-powered cars. A sufficient answer is that the realms of higher research must not be allowed to stagnate, apart from the possibility of America striking a surprise blow to British prestige in this sphere… So the warmest wishes to the success of Eyston’s newest, and boldest, venture.”. The magazine feature concluded with “We humbly suggest that the time is ripe for a book dealing with postwar attacks on the ‘Land Speed Record’. Such a book might well be named ‘Into the Unknown’.”

The good Captain named his great new town-engined six-wheeled car ‘Thunderbolt’. Between 1937 and 1939, the competition for the Land Speed Record really lay between two Englishmen: George Eyston and John Cobb. 

Both were immensely popular contenders – Eyston the warmer, more open and engaging of the pair – Cobb almost completely silent, a towering, bulky, gentlemanly, taciturn figure who spoke at best in monosyllables to all except his closest associates. He was, quite simply, a very private person, shy and naturally guarded.

On November 19^th, 1937 Eyston in Thunderbolt set a new world record mark at 312.00 mph (502.12 km/h) on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA. Within a year – on August 27^th 1938 – Eyston and Thunderbolt returned to Bonneville with improved aerodynamics and boosted the record to 345.50mph (556.03 km/h) The new mark survived only briefly as on 15 September 1938, with Eyston an interested spectator, John Cobb’s Railton Special broke the 350mph (560 km/h) barrier and raised the land speed record to 353.30mph (568.58 km/h). The Captain then responded by driving Thunderbolt to a new record of 357.50mph (575.34 km/h) defeating Cobb within 24 hours of his triumph. 

Eyston and Thunderbolt then held the record for almost a year, until Cobb struck back on August 23^rd, 1939, with a Bonneville, run at 369.70mph (594.97 km/h)… whereupon the Second World War suspended the competition. But while John Cobb came back post-war and further developed his Railton-Mobil Special to break the 400mph (640 km/h) barrier, Eyston would never again deploy Thunderbolt in an assault upon that record, which frankly had been punched beyond his reach.

Now while both John Cobb and George Eyston would become Goodwood visitors, and indeed in Eyston’s case a Goodwood official, into the early 1950s, only Cobb’s magnificent record breaking car would survive, being preserved today in the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum – which for some reason sees fit to ignore it on its website… unless I’m too dim to spot it there. Poor Eyston’s magnificent Thunderbolt, meanwhile, suffered a demeaning fate in 1946, only nine years after its record-breaking career had begun and had been so celebrated by ‘Motor Sport’.

It had been displayed in the British Pavilion at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition in the city of Wellington, in1939-40. The Centennial Exhibition had been centred upon display buildings at Rongotai, Wellington, and in wartime, the site became a military barracks and training centre, with Thunderbolt apparently stored in one of the buildings. As wartime risks saw bales of New Zealand-produced wool committed to storage – waiting for safer shipping conditions to prevail – it seems that Thunderbolt became surrounded by, and possibly buried by, this enormous and ever-growing wool stock. 

On or around 3 in the morning on September 25^th, 1946, the Rongotai storage building caught fire. The flames were fed by tarred roofing – one source tells us that “27,000 bales of wool, valued at £600,000, a quarter of the stored wool; five aircraft, two Tiger Moths, one Harvard, eighteen Gipsy aircraft engines, one five ton truck plus many other stores were destroyed. A British insurance company had insured the Thunderbolt and a payment was made at her loss.” 

The charred – and rusting – remains of the Land Speed Record holder’s frame are said to have been left in the open near Turangi Road adjacent to Rongotai College grounds in Wellington. And in the early 1950s, when a new Wellington Airport was being built it is believed that what was left of Thunderbolt was cut up into more convenient dimensions, and dumped in a local landfill tip.

Captain Eyston himself – Military Cross, OBE, Legion d’Honneur – passed away in June 1979, aged 83. He was described to me by World Champion Driver Phil Hill as “a prince amongst men” – and I have never heard anyone ever have a bad word for him. He was another British hero who postwar had a Goodwood role to play…

Photography courtesy of The GP Library