.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Watch The First Car To Ever Top 150-Mph Fire Up For The First Time In Decades


Watch The First Car To Ever Top 150-Mph Fire Up For The First Time In Decades

Sir Malcolm Campbell was one of the great heroes of the formative days of land speed record attempts. His machines were incredibly crude by the standards of today’s streamliners and ultra crazy efforts like the Bloodhound 1000 car that will be chasing the 1,000-mph barrier soon. One of the cars that he raced was fired up just days ago in front of a big crowd at the National Motor Museum in England. This car was one of Campbell’s “Bluebirds” of which there were several. Unlike several of the other cars, he bought this one after it had been constructed and then modified it for his own wants and needs. Obviously the story here is the engine that thundered this car to 150mph which was an absolutely incredible mark in 1925. Said engine is a Sunbeam Manitou, which was an abject failure as an airplane engine (its intended use upon design) but was somewhat redeemed by its performance in the hands of Campbell.

Displacing 18.3 liters with 12-cylinders, the engine was originally rated at 325hp, but with modifications to the cylinder heads and associated pieces, the engine in the racer made 350hp. If you can believe it, this car was actually wind tunnel tested in the 1930s, hence things like the tapered tail and pinched look of the front grill shell. It would normally have been run with coverings over the engine but in this video the massive V12 is hanging out in the breeze and we’re into that scene totally.

The best part of this video is that just about every single person that see it, will be hearing a Sunbeam Manitou for the first time in their lives. Being that only about 15 of these engines were ever produced and sold in the first place, it will probably be the only one you ever see or hear. When you see the two guys hand cranking it to start, you’ll be smiling like we were. How long did these guys have to practice to get as coordinated at it as they are now? We’re thinking this was a long time effort. We have read that the engine was damaged in the 1990s and it has only been repaired recently. We’re glad that it has been.

We live in a world where you can literally buy an economy car that’ll run 150mph. Back in 1925 it was an age before commercial air travel, before a space program, before computers, before any of the stuff we take for granted in the world. When Campbell went 150mph, it was en epic event. No one knew if a human could SURVIVE traveling 150mph. This was bleeding edge stuff and you are about to see the car he did it in and you’re about to hear the engine he did it with. What’s cooler than that?

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO WATCH SIR MALCOM CAMPBELL’S BLUEBIRD RECORD SETTER ROAR TO LIFE IN ENGLAND!


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

4 thoughts on “Watch The First Car To Ever Top 150-Mph Fire Up For The First Time In Decades

  1. workhorse 401

    thats awesome. a very cool piece of history. what was the rattle towards the end of the video?

  2. Hemi Joel

    As awesome as this is,
    it was not the 1st to go 150.

    And Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story:

    In 1919, while in the hospital recovering from a crash, Tommy Milton came up with an idea for a car to take the Land Speed Record. It was built in a collaboration with the Duesenberg Brothers, for whom Milton was a very successful driver. In the spring of 1920, the car was complete, with twin straight 8 Duesenberg engines, and was delivered to Daytona Beach. Fred Duesenberg and Miltons friend and fellow Duesenberg team driver Jimmy Murphy arrived first, while Milton attended an event in Cuba.
    As the cars owner, Milton had ordered that the car NOT be driven until he arrived. But the impatient Duesenberg directed Murphy to test the car. Without official timing, he drove the car 154 in the flying mile, (5 mph faster than Ralph DePalmas official record from 1919) and then apparently planned to wait for Milton to arrive and set the record. But the next day the newspapers came out proclaiming the run a new “record”, and hailing Murphy as the first person to go 150 MPH.
    Upon arriving at Dayton and learning the news, Milton was furious. Not only did he feel that his friends had betrayed him, but he soon discovered that the engines had ingested so much sand that they no longer had sufficient power. After tearing down and freshening both of the complex overhead cam straight 8’s, he called in the AAA timing officials and set the record at 156 MPH.

    Now, how is it that the Brits claim to be the first to go 150 MPH? Since the European timing organization had not been there to time it, they simply refused to recognize the record. Even though the AAA was the recognized racing and timing organization in the USA.
    So 5 years later, in 1925, Sir Malcom Campbell proclaimed himself to be the first to go 150 MPH in a car. And apparently in Brittan, they still cling to that misconception.

  3. cyclone03

    I think most of what sounded like a rattle was the mis on the other,off camera,side of the engine. The cylinder misfire on this side seemed to clear up.

    MegaSqrirt would fix it….

Comments are closed.