Last summer Oscar, Garfield and me went to Pendine Sands on the south coast of Wales. It has a very famous beach which is about 7 miles long and it used to be where brave men made their attempts on the World Land Speed Record. They have a small but interesting museum there, in which “Babs” is displayed. Babs is a famous car with a troubled history.
Babs
It was originally built for a Count who used it as a racing car in the early 1920’s. It has a massive 27,000cc engine out of an aeroplane and is a brutal monster of a thing. It must have been a scary drive. Is 27,000cc big, you ask? Well, your mum’s Renault has 1,600cc and my big Volvo has 2,400cc. My BMW has 3,000cc, so the engine in Babs is the same size as 10 Volvos plus a BMW thrown in as well! Or about 17 Renaults! Pretty huge then. The Count died when he crashed it in the Italian Grand Prix, the wrecked car was bought by J G Parry Thomas and fixed up again.
Babs today, all fixed up, with her bonnet off so you can see the engine
Thomas raced it at Brookland and then took it to Pendine to set the World Land Speed Record. He set a record of about 168mph in 1926 but shortly afterwards a guy called Donald Campbell broke that record in his car called Bluebird. If you Google Donald Campbell, you will see he was an amazing chap who set all sorts of speed records. Pendine Sands was long enough for these monsters to get up to these terrific speeds but they had to wait for good weather and a low tide. The sand is then very smooth and quite firm. I had a walk along the beach when the tide was out and the sand barely moved under my shoes. It would be quite difficult to make a decent sand castle or bury your dad up to his neck in the sand. Even so, the sand is soft compared to Tarmac and those skinny tyres under their monster motors must have dug in a bit.
J G Parry Thomas
By the way, ‘Tarmac’ is a trade name for that type of road surface and it is correctly spelled with a capital T. Super strictly speaking, it should have a little TM after Tarmac too, for trademark, meaning that someone owns the right to use that name. Imagine Jack Bolton set up a factory to make train wheels and called the business Bolton Wheels. While you’re busy making really good wheels, some rotten crook starts making wheels and also calls them Bolton Wheels. You’d be cross that he would be using your name and stealing your business. To stop such naughtiness, you can Trademark your name (Bolton Wheels) to stop someone else using it.
In spring of 1927, the weather improved enough for Parry Thomas to try and get his record back from Donald Campbell. During his runs he got the record up to about 171mph but then, disaster. Babs slid, then rolled over, killing Thomas instantly. After poor Thomas was taken away, the local people dug a big hole in the sand and buried the car forever.
Or so they thought. 42 years later, a man got permission to dig the car up again, which he did. 15 years hard work saw the car repaired and rebuilt. Today she (cars are often called she, rather than it) stands pride of place in the Museum of Speed at Pendine Sands. She is driven from time to time and appears at special events but she is never raced. Given her history that is probably a good decision! Seeing her in the metal makes you feel quite strange. This is an heroic car with a monster engine breathing fire through those stubby little exhausts, 6 short fat pipes poking out from under each side of the long bonnet, hiding that huge V12 beneath. But she has killed two owners and maybe she really is a bit of a monster. Even so, it would be fun to take her out onto that long beach, give that heavy throttle a tickle and feel her lunge forward.