Pendine Sands - The Quest For the Land Speed Record

This new record was broken, not at Brooklands where most of the previous world records had been broken in the United Kingdom but on Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. This record was the first of three world land speed records that Malcolm Campbell was to break on the sands at Pendine.

Pendine Sands is known the world over and is one of the longest uninterrupted stretches of sand in the United Kingdom, being seven miles in length.

When Campbell arrived at Pendine in 1924 there was one hotel, the now famous Beach Hotel, built around 1840 and maybe a hundred or so houses and farms scattered around the hillside overlooking the beach.

This sleepy corner of West wales was used to the motor car, as the beach had been a playground for those who could afford it since the invention of the car, as the beach was a lot smoother than the local roads. Racing had taken place on Pendine for both cars and motorbikes long before it became the venue for Malcolm Campbell's Land Speed record attempts.

Campbell had heard of trials by the RAC and the Carmarthen Motor Club on Pendine and was keen to find somewhere on British soil, as he had the misfortune of killing a small boy the previous year when a tyre came off Bluebird during a record attempt on the beach at Fanoe in Denmark.

The next record he broke was in the United Kingdom at Saltburn in Yorkshire, but was not officially recognised by the governing body of speed records. The beach was too short and Campbell needed somewhere that had plenty of length to get up to speed and also slow down without running out of space.

So during RAC trials in September 1924 Pendine Sands was surveyed and deemed a suitable track to hold a Land Speed Record . Campbell wanted this record badly but the weather was against him and it was not until nearly the end of September that they were able to make the long arduous journey down to Pendine Sands. Even after arriving at Pendine the rain and wind persisted and Bluebird was put into the garage at the Beach Hotel and made ready for the attempt for the record. Campbell's patience finally snapped and a few days after arriving at Pendine on the 25th September a track was marked on the beach and all the seashells and driftwood was cleared from the track and in the still unfavourable conditions Bluebird was brought down onto the beach.

The roar of Bluebird's V12 engine as the car was started echoed off the nearby cliffs, the engine was warmed up and the plugs then changed for racing plugs. Campbell then eased Bluebird off the metal sheets, placed on the sand to stop the car sinking into the rain drenched sand and accelerated away into the distance, the sound of the engine still audible as the car disappeared from view. The only thing that Campbell had to worry about was the small patches of soft sand, which would momentarily slow Bluebird down and Campbell had to stop the car skidding as the wheels gripped again on the hard surface.

At the end of the day Bluebird's best runs were averaged and a speed of 146.163 mph was recorded, a new world record, taking the previous record away from Earnest A.D. Eldridge who set it at Arpajon in France in the Fiat Special Mephistopheles 11 at 145.896 mph.

That night in the Beach Hotel a happy band of men and women celebrated well into the small hours, thus sealing the role Pendine Sands would play in the quest for the World Land Speed Record.

Copyright, G.P.T. Davies