Cobblers

Writing in the Mature Times of the high speeds of which modern production cars are capable, Tony Watts asks if any of his readers remembers the world recordbreaking speed achieved by John Cobb in the Napier Railton in 1938? He then quotes this record as 250.2mph, “almost exactly the top speed of the forthcoming Jaguar supercar, retailing at a cool £400.000”.

He recalls that Cobb “had the luxury of putting his foot down well away from other drivers and pedestrians” and queries how much use the Jaguar driver will get out of his top speed.

Poor Cobb! He has again been underrated. His 1938 LSR was a mean speed of 350.20 mph. And Eyston, who is referred to as “thrashing” Cobb the next day “by over 100mph” actually did 357.5 …

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