From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
ON PENDINE'S SANDS
The little Welsh village of Pendine in Carmarthenshire today has that faded look of many a seaside village that has been more or less abandoned by a more affluent society who once graced its sands but now prefer the Costa del Sol.
Pendine, however, has more to its history than just holiday sun worshippers, as its Museum of Speed attests. Here, close to the huge expanse of flat, clean sand which once made Pendine famous, is a record of motor sport activities, both 2- and 4- wheeled, which took place on Pendine's sands. Car trials as well as motorcycle racing took place on the sands but, most of all, record attempts were made and records raised at Pendine.
Malcolm Campbell was the first to see Pendine's potential and in September 1924 took his Sunbeam there. On September 25, having overcome considerable difficulties, Campbell raised the world speed record for the mile to 146.16 mph. Pendine's association with the land speed record had begun.
Having built a suitable car to attack Campbell's record based on the late Count Zborowski's Higham Special, the great engineer Parry Thomas arrived at Pendine in October 1925. His new car was christened "Babs" but the sands proved too water-logged to allow record runs. Meanwhile Campbell had taken the record to 150.766 mph in the summer of 1925 and had commissioned a new car to be built around a Napier Lion 450 bhp aero-engine.
Another challenger, Henry Segrave, had meanwhile entered the contest with a new Sunbeam record car. Segrave went to Southport in Lancashire rather than Pendine and there, rather fortuitously, raised the record to 152.33 mph.
Thomas and "Babs" were back at Pendine in April 1926, smashing Cambell's 1925 record and raising the mark to 169.238 mph. However, the following day, Thomas raised the record even further to 171.09 mph, despite a scare when a shock absorber came loose during one of his high-speed runs.
For the 1927 season a number of interesting challengers appeared. Louis Coatalen, Sunbeam's chief engineer, had built the most powerful car the world had yet seen. Developing over 1,000 hp, its twin engines were deemed too powerful for Pendine and Sunbeam opted instead to make the attempt at Daytona Beach in the US.
Campbell returned to Pendine with Bluebird in December 1926 and again in January 1927 without success, but on February 4 set a new record of 174.883 mph.
Knowing that Segrave and the Sunbeam were about to sail for America, Thomas and "Babs" returned to Pendine in the middle of February 1928 but a bout of flu prevented him from making any record attempt.
On March 1, despite still feeling unwell, Thomas was ready to begin his record attempt. Having made a warm-up run, he was at full speed near the end of his second run when "Babs" was seen to skid, roll over and finally come to rest right way up.
When horrified spectators reached the smoking wreck, they found Thomas already dead, decapitated by the drive-chain. An investigation by Reid Railton suggested that the offside rear wheel had collapsed, throwing a spoke into the drive sprocket wheel, breaking the chain with disastrous and tragic results. The wreckage of the car was buried in the dunes alongside Pendine's sands, to be exhumed 42 years later in 1969 and returned to running order.
On March 29 1927, Segrave pushed the 1,000 bhp Sunbeam to a new record of 203.79 mph at Daytona Beach, a figure which showed the futility of a brave man's attempt to wrest one more record out of "Babs" on Pendine's sands.