I've been hooked on record breaking since God was a boy so naturally took an interest in the Barry Bowles project. I'll post whatever I can dig out, but just to confirm that Malcolm Cambell set his final LSR at Bonneville at 301mph having moved from Daytona Beach which he felt was becoming too dangerous and performance affecting. Until then, beaches had all manner of records set on them. Bonneville had been used by others well before Campbell got there and continued to be "the place" for the LSR until Richard Noble moved to Black Rock. Craig Breedlove ran there once in 1996 at modest speeds (331mph if I recall) in his last Spirit of America jet car but soon moved to Black Rock as well. But back to Bazza. I saw the original car run once before he bent it. Goodyear had warned him not to run those tyres at that speed on that surface but he decided to laugh at danger. Whether it was a simple failure by exceeding design limits or a cut by a sea shell or other debris was never finally established as far as I know. There must be somebody out there involved who knows. Anyway, since the damage wouldn't polish out, a second car was duly built which I saw in Nov 1979 on display in Milton Keynes shopping Centre. I handed over the princley sum of £2.50 to join his supporters club which I see was accepted by somebody called Philip Park. In return I got a membership card, windscreen sticker, signed BB photo (love the shirt and jacket) plus a chunk of bodywork from the wrecked car - also signed. A few news bulletins followed (which I'll also scan) before BB vanished leaving behind tales of financial irregularities. Whether true or not I have no idea but I'm sure my £2.50 went to a good cause. Shame the car was never seen again.
Robin
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BB-1.jpg (279.66 KiB) Viewed 11504 times
Robin
