I've just been reading a biography of de Hane Segrave which I managed to
borrow. Segrave was a works driver for Sunbeam Talbot Darracq in the
twenties. It was written in 1930 by Malcolm Campbell (another ex-Sunbeam
driver) and J. Wentworth Day and has to be the most enjoyable
motoring-related book I have ever read.
I've been pondering how difficult it would be to have a new edition printed,
since it is a story which deserves re-telling. It might have to be edited a
bit though because of 21st century political correctness sensibilities.
I thought I would share a couple of passages that particularly tickled me.
Russ Maddock
The first one is part of an account from the Grand Prix d'Europe of 1924:
"A little later he was approaching a dangerous corner which could only be
taken with safety at under ninety miles an hour. The fields on either side
were rough and studded with boulders and gorse bushes. The driver ahead of
him was named Ferrari, and just as they neared the corner he must have heard
Segrave's exahust roaring behind him for he glanced round. That brief second
nearly killed him. He trod on the accelerator, tried to round the corner at
120 miles an house instead of 90, missed it, crashed through the fence into
a field, and hit an enormous boulder head-on.
The car shot straight up into the air, turned completely over, threw both
driver and mechanic into a gorse bush and crashed to earth thirty feet away,
a total wreck. Neither Ferrari nor his mechanic were badly hurt."
This of course refers to Enzo Ferrari, founder of the company which now
bears his name. There couldn't have been many times Sunbeam got the better
of Ferrari.
The second passage relates to Segrave's attempt on the Land Speed Record in
the 1000hp Sunbeam.
"He departed for Daytona by sea, but landed at Jacksonville and went on by
road in his own standard three-litre Sunbeam touring car, which was capable
of 90 miles per hour on the open road. America at that day had seen nothing
like this car. It looked like, and was, an ordinary touring car, such as any
rich man might drive to his office - but it could travel at a mile and a
half a minute.
Miles out of Daytona, Segrave was met and greeted by a line of cars
containing the chief dignitaries of the town. Special squads of armed
police, with pistols at their belts, roared along the road behind on fast
motor-cycles. Segrave invited one or two of the chief bigwigs into his car.
They took their seats and, opening her out, he let her rip along at a cool
mile and a half a minute over a straight stretch of road. It never for a
moment crossed his mind that this was anything out of the ordinary. High
speed on a clear road was normal to him. The following cars and motor cycles
faded out behind in a blur.
Suddenly, Segrave noticed that his passengers were gazing wide-eyed at the
speedometer needle and raising their eyebrows at each other. "Are we really
doing ninety miles an hour?" he was asked. "We are," Segrave replied. "I
might get a bit more out of her if you like."
"No thanks," the passenger replied with a grin, "this is quite enough.
There's no touring car in America which can do this. Perhaps, it's just as
well for you and your speed-cops", he added, turning and smiling to another
passenger.
Segrave inquired who the other passenger might be. "Oh, he's the Chief of
Police!" was the reply."
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Sunbeams hit the Gold Coast in June 2001 - www.qld.sunbeam.org.au/national
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