The Land Speed Record for Cars - 1930's

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Land Speed Record For Cars - 1930's

(Toys included of Course!)

http://www.bertoiaauctions.com

(Please press on the above link to be redirected to the Bertoia Auction site)

      Of course, you can't talk or look at old toys without looking at cars. And looking at cars will inevitably  lead you to fast cars. There has always been the  quest for speed, whether it be by land sea, or air, and by boat, plane, jet, balloon, or car. With the mass-production of the car with Henry Ford's Model T in 1908, the "masses" who could afford a car would naturally want to test it out. Eventually, by the 1920's and later, speed records were being chased after. Records kept falling as faster and better cars kept being raced. 

   One of the most famous racers of the last century was Captain Malcolm Campbell, who fought in WWI.  He would race both on land and in the water to break all kinds of world records. He raced in Wales on the Perdine flats (beach), at Daytona (Florida), and then of course, the famous Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (USA).

When I credited Sir Malcolm Campbell's photo from Wikepedia, and the Florida Archives, I was curious about the donor of the photo.  I sent an e-mail to the Florida Archives asking who the donor of the Campbell photo was, and within an hour  I got a reply from Jody (Joanna) Norman, the Archives Supervisor of the State Library & Archives of Florida. She had sent me a photo of Sig Haugdahl, the racer who was the person who had donated the photos and many others of Racing at Daytona in the 1930's.

It turned out that Sig Haugdahl was a garage owner, race-car maker, and fireworks expert.

If you drop by the Florida Archives, you can read about Mr. Haugdahl, and lots more photographs of race cars at Daytone in the 1930's.

I subsequently found another photo of a racer by the name of Kaye Don, whom you see below.
It turned out that this car in the photo was used as a model from some toy companies toys.

Those large silver-coloured rectangular panels are replica transmission coolers.

Mr. Donald Kaufmann is a famous toy collecotr who had his amazing collection sold by Bertoia Auctions. He had purchased a good amount of his toys form a collector (to be researched) who had a lifetime goal of having a museum. Eventually he closed the museum and sold the collection to Mr. Kaufman. 

     Captain Malcolm's record in the early 1930's was about 232 mph (385 kph). At that time, that was a very fast speed for a racing car on wheels. I mention wheels, because nowadays, at the Bonneville Salt flats in the USA, there are cars that are in a different classification. They are with jet engines, but the power is not transmitted to the tires! The tires are there werely to move the chassis on the ground!

The current record for land speed is held by  RAF fighter pilot Wing Commander Andy Green.

He set the record at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada (USA). The"car"used 2 Rolls-Royce jet engines, is 54' (15.5 m) long c 12' (3.7 m) wide, and weighted 10.5 tons (USA). It burned 4.2 gallons (Imperial) or 18 litres per second.

The speed was set at   763.035 mph or 1227.986 km/h

That broke the sound barrier (720 mph)

As Bob Dylan once said in his famous song - "The Times, They Are a Changin' "

Thanks for Visiting,

and have a great part of the day, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey