Sands of time give up search for speed

I first read about them as a child, in my father's dusty old copies of Boys Own.

Even then those pioneers of speed seemed to belong to a far-off age.

I can still picture them now, drawn carefully in pen and ink, hurtling along faster than any humans on Earth, their chiselled chins and stiff upper lips slicing through the bracing seaside air.

I'd often thought of visiting the site of their epic battle three-quarters of a century ago, but it wasn't until decades later, travelling through South Wales, that I stumbled across the words on a map and decided to visit the historic beach where the events took place.

From 1924 until 1927, Pendine Sands was the site of one of the most memorable speed battles in motoring history - a sustained struggle between two giants of motor racing, during which the world land speed record was broken five times.

The protagonists were Malcolm Campbell, 39 years old and already famous, and 40-year-old John Parry Thomas, a daringly original car designer and, like Campbell, a highly successful racing driver.

Campbell wasn't the first to race on Pendine Sands - motorcycle races had been held there since the early 1920s - but he was the man who chose it as the venue to challenge the world land speed record.

Driving there now, I could imagine him motoring along the twisting lanes between high hedgerows, before catching his first glimpse of the beach.

Away from the modern-day caravan parks and the British Ministry of Defence testing site, a 10-minute hike up the rocky headland reveals pretty much the same now as then: an 8km stretch of gloriously flat, smooth sandy beach.

Below the headland still stands the Beach Hotel, where the men and their teams stayed and tinkered with their cars in the forecourt before each record attempt. Black and white photographs of the men and the colossal racing machines still hag on the walls of the hotel bar.

It fell to Campbell to break the land speed record the first time, at the wheel of Sunbeam, powered by a 18-litre V12 engine. On September 25, 1924, he created a new world record: 146 mph (236.52km/h).

Campbell was to maintain a clear lead over his rival Thomas for some time. The second time the record was broken at Pendine Sands it fell to Campbell again, who nudged the speed over 150 mph (243 km/h) in July the following year.

But Campbell wasn't to hold the record for long. For Parry Thomas had been working on a rival to Sunbeam - a chain-driven monster called Babs, powered by a 20-litre engine.

When he took to the wheel of Babs on April 27, 1926, he recorded 169 mph (273.78 km/h), demolishing Campbell's record by a colossal margin.

The next day Parry Thomas improved his own record, nudging it up to 171 mph (277.02 km/h).

But the last record to be set at Pendine Sands fell to Campbell in a new car called Bluebird. On February 4, 1927, he reclaimed his title as the fastest man on earth with a speed of just under 175 mph (283.5 km/h).

The final tragic chapter to the story did not take place until the following year. Parry Thomas motored down to Pendine on February 28, but bad weather prevented him tackling the record until his last day at the beach, Thursday, March 3.

At first the attempt seemed to be going well, but travelling at great speed halfway along the beach, Babs suddenly skidded and rolled over before coming to a stop facing the sea and catching fire.

Quite what happened no one will ever know. But it seems probable that the car's external chain broke and when Parry Thomas leaned out to see what had happened, the chain struck him, killing him instantly.

In deference to Parry Thomas, Babs was buried in the dunes until 1969 when enthusiasts won permission to bring the car back to life.

Considering that it had been buried for 42 years, Babs was in surprisingly good condition. Now fully restored, Babs returns to Pendine Sands every summer as the star exhibit at the Museum of Speed, which overlooks the beach.

Pendine itself may never again witness new world land speed record attempts, but its racing days are far from over.

The beach is the site of new speed attempts by a generation of electrically powered cars, driven by Don Wales, grandson of Malcolm Campbell.

On May 21, 1998, Wales set a British record for electric cars with a speed of 116 mph (187.92 km/h).

While far short of the 245 mph (396.9 km/h) world record, Wales and his team reckon that if they reach 200 mph (324 km/h) at Pendine Sands in their redesigned Bluebird, they stand a chance of clocking 300 mph (486 km/h) at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, which offers a run twice as long as the beach.

So all eyes are on Pendine once again. If the Campbell family is right, the electric Bluebird could make her historic debut on a Welsh beach that saw so much glory 75 years ago.