Record Breaking

Although record attempts are by no means so frequent as they were before the war, this form of high-speed motoring is not defunct. Apart from the abortive British Vita project, outlined above, Wallace Arnold Sales and Service Ltd. attempted to capture long-duration International Class G (751 to 1,100 c.c., not up to 1,000 c.c. as both British Vita and Motor seem to think) records last year, at Montlhéry. They used a Vauxhall Viva HB with a Westune-prepared, overbored HA engine. The drivers were Allerton, Brett, Bowler, Jones and Myerscough. After various troubles the attempt was called off, but not before the Vauxhall had averaged over 83 m.p.h. for three days. Incidentally, if interest revives in record-breaking one would wish for proper documentation of the position by the Competitions Department of the R.A.C. Before the war it was possible to buy, for 1s., a book giving all the World’s, International Class, C.I. and British records (note the pre-war designations), corrected up to the end of March 1938, while for a fee of 10s. a year the R.A.C. would post to anyone interested printed notices of any alteration, as soon as fresh records were confirmed by the F.I.A. Today such services would presumably be several times more expensive, but with the great increase in interest in everything to do with competition motoring, and the very many more clubs and firms involved, their re-introduction would surely be worthwhile. Short of visiting the holy archives in Pall Mall, or taking a trip to Paris, one can only keep track of the records situation by fumbling through back issues of “Automobile Year” or consulting an American Club publication to which only a limited number of interested parties has access and which can be up to 12 months out of date.

But, alas, the R.A.C. does not appear interested in encouraging record attempts, judging by the fact that successful competitors at Elvington, who set new car records, have been told that it will cost them something like 50 gns. each to have their successes homologated, whereas the A.C.U. makes no such charge for getting F.I.A. recognition of new motorcycle records.—W. B.