Author Topic: It was 50 years ago today ....  (Read 8998 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline TrickyDicky

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 607
It was 50 years ago today ....
« on: April 14, 2014, 12:52:35 PM »
... Donald Campbell set the land speed record for 4-wheeled vehicles at 403.1 mph*.

Is nothing happening today to celebrate this anniversary?  :-o






















* According to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).   :-D

Offline Milwaukee Midget

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 6662
    • Milwaukee Midget Racing
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2014, 02:54:28 PM »
World's fastest Winnie the Pooh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqvpcX4HoCg






















* According to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).   :-D

[/quote]
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline Peter Jack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3776
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2014, 03:13:38 PM »
I'm waaaaay more impressed with the hot rodders who have followed and achieved comparable or better speeds than some wealthy Brit with major government and industrial support.

Pete

Offline TD

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 147
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2014, 07:55:27 PM »
Thanks for pointing this out!   By coincidence I'm (re-)reading "Bluebird & The Dead Lake", which I think is a very interesting telling of the 1963 & 1964 Lake Eyre attempts.    An extremely isolated and harsh environment, no question.

I did not check the FIA site but most other sites seem to think the record was set in July of '64.

Last, after the Bonneville crash the rebuild of the car and the subsequent expedition to Lake Eyre was financed by Campbell - as described in the book, anyway.

Tim
« Last Edit: April 15, 2014, 07:57:21 PM by TD »

Offline kiwi belly tank

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3132
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2014, 11:09:47 PM »
I don't think we've come very far at all considering John Cobb had actually run over 400mph in 1939.
  Sid.

Offline TrickyDicky

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 607
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2014, 02:40:38 AM »
I don't think we've come very far at all considering John Cobb had actually run over 400mph in 1939.
  Sid.

1947.  But still a long time ago.

From a pedant.

Offline TrickyDicky

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 607
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2014, 02:55:14 AM »

I did not check the FIA site but most other sites seem to think the record was set in July of '64.


The FIA are the definitive source.  If they say it was 14 April, it was 14 April.  Even if it was 17 July.

How do we know what really happened in 1964?

Offline Malcolm UK

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 801
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2014, 02:03:32 PM »
On the correct date there will be an event at Brooklands to remember the first leg of the "double" from 50 years ago - 17th July.  This will also see the launch of a book on Malcolm & Donald compiled and created by David de Lara.

There is a dinner at the National Motor Museum Beaulieu on the 19th. with Tonia Bern-Campbell.

In Australia there are events up to 31st December, when Donald broke the water speed record to take the FIA wheeldriven record (they had no thrust powered class until '65) and the UIM Outright water record.

Donald was not 'rich' in the sense of having abundant personal funds but he did get British industry to back the creation of Bluebird CN7 (designed by Ken Norris), much as Ricjhard Noble has done with the various Thrust and SSC projects.

Having crashed at Bonneville in '60 Donald had no interest in returning to the US salt so went to Australia in '63 and '64 and found water on Lake Eyre hence speeds even a year later well below the potential of CN7 (500 mph).

Was Donald a hot rodder? I think he and Mickey T got along comparing backgrounds, he was an engineer after all not a fur trader or insurance broker.

Let's not waste some band width trying to define a 'hot rodder' when talking about land speed racing and outright land speed records? How would you describe Mike Akatiff and Denis Manning and Danny Thompson and Ron Main and .......  :evil:


Malcolm UK, Derby, England.

Offline Malcolm UK

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 801
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2014, 04:30:16 PM »
I should have pointed out that there could be transatlantic banter as to whether Donald held an 'absolute land speed record' or just an automobile record. :|

 
Malcolm UK, Derby, England.

Offline TrickyDicky

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 607
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2014, 07:00:54 AM »
It really is the 50th anniversary today.  There's a good article summarising all the important facts here:

http://www.news.com.au/national/speed-ace-donald-campbells-bluebird-landspeed-record-at-lake-eyre-turns-50-today/story-e6frfkp9-1226992390819?from=public_rss

I remain bemused that the FIA has the date wrong (14 April vs 17 July).  My personal theory is that it is caused by someone French handwriting the date and it being misread by someone else (i.e. conceivably a French '7' could be interpreted as a '4').  But who knows?
 

Offline Graham

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 35
    • Fluids Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Projects - FLIP
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2014, 07:03:56 AM »
Having dealt extensively with the FIA over the last 2 or 3 months, I can tell you there are dozens of anomalies (i.e. stuffups) in that record list, and the further you go back in time, the less likely you are to find answers! I think there was some good wine out of Bordeaux in the 1980's, for instance, because le memoirs go blank for long periods.
Graham Doig
Fluids Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Projects - www.thinkflip.net
Aerospace Engineering Department
California Polytechnic State University

Offline kiwi belly tank

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3132
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2014, 09:24:10 AM »
I believe I detected a little Canadian wine earlier in this thread. :-D
  Sid.

Offline Peter Jack

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3776
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2014, 10:05:15 AM »
Not really. I'm just way more impressed with the much more independent North Americans, Australians,Kiwis, etc. who have done it much more on their own instead of enlisting major help from government and industry.  :-D :-D :-D

Pete

Offline TrickyDicky

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 607
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2014, 03:09:24 PM »
Having dealt extensively with the FIA over the last 2 or 3 months, I can tell you there are dozens of anomalies (i.e. stuffups) in that record list, and the further you go back in time, the less likely you are to find answers! ...

Would you care to share some of those anomalies?  Are there records you are chasing that you suspect are not correctly recorded?

What I don't understand is the apparent reluctance to correct glaring errors. This is supposed to be the World governing body. Any information they publish should be double checked and then checked again. And if there are still errors (clerical or otherwise) they should be big enough to admit it and publish corrections.

[/rant]

Offline joea

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1555
Re: It was 50 years ago today ....
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2014, 04:29:25 PM »
its possible that they would correct inaccuracies...for a fee...obviously its not important enough, or things would
be different...

the LSR side of FIA and FIM is obviously not a priority that they are passionate enough about to keep in the highest regard...
the "tradition" speaks for itself...