Babs (car)
Babs is a vehicle that set a land speed record in 1926 .
The vehicle, originally known as Chitty Bang Bang IV and also as Higham Special , was christened Babs by its later owner. It is based on a Blitzen-Benz , but was equipped with a 450 hp twelve-cylinder V- plane engine with a displacement of 27 liters of the Liberty L-12 type . The vehicle was originally designed by Count Louis Zborowski , but could not be completed until his death in 1924 and was later acquired by Leyland Motors' racing driver and chief engineer J. G. Parry-Thomas .
Land speed record
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Parry-Thomas made an engine conversion, changed the carburettor systems and built in specially developed pistons. In order to achieve improvements in driving characteristics and aerodynamics, he changed the body and the body shape a few times. With the vehicle modified in this way, he reached a top speed of 273.6 km / h in Pendine Sands on April 28, 1926 , setting a land speed record for wheel-drive vehicles according to the rules of the Association Internationale des Automobile Club Reconnus (AIACR).
accident
At the beginning of 1927 the body shape was changed again so that the rear wheels were partially covered. In another record attempt on March 3, 1927, Parry-Thomas lost control of the vehicle, he had a fatal accident and Babs was destroyed. Parry-Thomas's state of health is stated as the cause of the accident; a previously suspected technical defect was excluded when the vehicle was rebuilt.
Salvage and reconstruction
After the Higham Special was buried on the beach not far from the accident site in 1927, Babs was recovered in 1969 by a lecturer at the Technical College of North Wales in Bangor and then rebuilt and restored over a period of around 15 years. Babs is on display today at the Museum of Speed in Pendine .
Web links
- Report on the Higham Special on BBC One
- JOHN GODFREY PARRY THOMAS 1884-1927
- John Godfrey Parry Thomas - BABS ( Memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )