Hey all, a report from sunny (ahem) UK.
For those who missed it, The good Lady Hedgash, junior and myself are now living on campus at the University of Nottingham where I have joined the world of practical academia. By practical I mean we get to make stuff and we have some pretty cool tools to do this with. Think 6 axis routers, 3D printers and industrial laser cutters. Rolls Royce uses one of our machines to do some structural refining on part prototypes.
That said I also have a bunch of talented students to come up with some ideas to. I have set the task of designing a new Landspeed Museum for my class this year and so as part of our research I organised a bus trip to Pendine Sands, the UK home of landspeed racing.
Basically this beach, located in southern wales was chosen because the cars were getting to fast for Brooklands and local tracks and they needed somewhere longer and straighter. PS is about 9 miles long and straight and what I didn't realise until I got there is that it is also very very wide when the tide goes out. Unlike many UK beaches it has a good firm sand and not pebbles so it forms a good surface. The place was known about due to TT bike races carried out on the sand.
Malcolm Campbell broke world records there amongst other big names but it pretty much stopped around 1928 when J.G. Parry-Thomas crashed and died there. (Chain drive failed partially decapitating him...) Partly out of respect and partly because it felt unsafe Campbell started to look elsewhere for his attempts which of course saw him head to Daytona in the US.
The beach is used until this day though for driving events, for example Don Wales recently broke the UK electric landspeed record here and he is the grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell. I have been in contact with him and hopefully he will be able to give our students a talk. Top Gear also have used the beach for a number of episodes and the bikes still come to race. Other than that it is a sleepy Welsh seaside village with Holiday park and firing range. (We could not go down the beach until the flags were removed on our visit due to live firing exercises).
There is an existing Museum of Speed there which was closed due to winter but I had the chap who runs it come down and talk to us about the place. Nice Guy.
Next field trip for my students is to go to Beaulieu Motor Museum in Southampton. This is the home of some of the greatest landspeed cars in the world; a couple of Bluebirds, Goldenrod, the Slug and others. I can't wait. I have so far had the students research the mudflap out of Landspeed racing, the times, and who and what and so have had a great boost in my own knowledge of the history of it all.
Enjoying the UK, missing working on the tank.
Reverend Hedgash
Topic: Australian Belly Tank (Read 3190371 times)