Sir Malcolm

This is a bit hysterical actually… An editor for a mainstream performance magazine gave me a call a few weeks ago looking for information on Sir Malcolm Campbell. He was writing a piece covering his life and times and figured a guy like me would know plenty about his racing activities on the salt. The thing is, I don’t know diddly… In fact, everything I know about the British icon you could learn with a quick Google search.

Even so, I played the knowledgeable as best I could. It wasn’t long before it was obvious the editor in question had a better grasp on Malcolm’s history than I did. Apparently, he had read the wikipedia entry more recently than I had.

Sir Malcolm Campbell broke the LSR for the first time in 1924 at 146.16 mph (235.22 km/h) at Pendine Sands near Carmarthen Bay in a 350HP V12 Sunbeam. Malcolm broke nine land speed records between 1924 and 1935, with three at Pendine Sands and five at Daytona Beach. His first two records were driving a racing car manufactured by the Sunbeam Car Company in Wolverhampton.

On February 4, 1927 Campbell set the World Land Speed Record at Pendine Sands covering the Flying Kilometre in a mean average of 174.883 m.p.h. and the Flying Mile in 174.224 m.p.h. on the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird. [6]

He set his final land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on 3 September 1935, and was the first person to drive an automobile over 300 miles per hour (301.337 mph (484.955 km/h)).

– Wikipedia

All of this is pretty common knowledge and I’m sure most of you have a pretty good grasp on it. But a couple of videos came out of this interchange that I had never seen and really enjoyed. I figured ya’ll would as well.

First, a news real of sorts:

And finally, some raw footage that is absolutely incredible: