Bluebird at Bonneville

For live years Sir Malcolm Campbell has been trying to learn how it would feel to drive Bluebird, his 2,500-h.p., 28 ft., 6-ton automobile, at 300 m.p.h. Last week at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, he found out:

"My good lads shoved me off and the Bluebird made a good getaway in first speed. . . . Ahead of me stretched a seemingly illimitable field of glaring white with an eight-inch black strip down the centre to guide me. . . . Faster & faster I went. It was the first time a world's high-speed record had been attempted on salt. . . . I passed my first marker, a huge 'No. 6' three feet high, painted on a large square board. This indicated to me that I had six miles to go before I reached the beginning of the measured mile. . . . I passed Nos. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. . . .

"I tried to steal a quick glance at my revolution counter. It was well over 3,400 revolutions a minute. I knew I was running 300 miles an hour. . . .

"On I went out of the measured mile. I shut off my engine to get its braking effect on the car. Could I stop in the six miles left to go?"

Sir Malcolm managed to stop but before he did so, he had a blowout.

"It made a loud pop. . . . I felt a jar on the front of the car. . . . I saw bits of rubber fly up from the left front tire. The salt flying up into my face had by now almost stopped vision through my goggles. I swerved out of line. I snapped the 'old lady' back quickly and there wasn't much trouble in the run to the stop. . . ."

Rules of the International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs which govern records like Sir Malcolm's call for two runs in opposite directions, to be completed within an hour. With new tires on Bluebird, Sir Malcolm started his second run with eight minutes of the hour left. After averaging his time for the two runs, American Automobile Association officials announced the result as 299.875 m.p.h. Disgusted at having missed his objective by an eyelash, Driver Campbell said he would try again next morning. Four hours later, he was told that a bungling timer had made an error in arithmetic and that his correct speed was 301.337. Said Sir Malcolm: "The news comes somewhat flat but I am glad to hear it. . . . I feel that the Bluebird has made her last flight. . . ."

When, in 1922, he first made up his mind to travel faster on land than anyone else, Sir Malcolm Campbell immediately found himself faced by a corollary problem: where to do it? He spent five years inspecting beaches & deserts, finally picked out Daytona Beach, Fla. as the place best suited to his purposes. Wind and rain last spring delayed his sprint for weeks, finally prevented Sir Malcolm from making more than a picayune world's record of 276 m.p.h. He began the search again. Whether or not Sir Malcolm Campbell decides he wants to go faster in the future, it was at least clear last week that his search for a scene of activity had really ended. Of Bonneville Salt Flats, which is likely to be the centre of most important auto speed tests in the future, Driver Campbell said: "It is the world's greatest speed course."

No novelty, the Bonneville Salt Flats have been in their present position and equally well suited to high-speed automobile driving for centuries. One hundred miles west of Salt Lake City, they are part of the dried-up bed of prehistoric Lake Bonneville which once covered most of northwestern Utah. For 200 square miles the residual salt is as flat as a concrete highway, so hard that iron tent-stakes often bend when driven in. In the winter two inches of rain cover the flats, leave a fresh, white, marble-smooth surface in the spring. There is no dust. Moisture in the salt cools friction-heated tires. The salt's resistance minimizes skidding. There are two concentric circular tracks at Bonneville, one twelve and a half miles around, the other ten. For Sir Malcolm a 13-mile straightaway was laid out near the Western Pacific Railroad tracks which cross the flats from east to west.

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