Babs (Land speed record car)

Infobox Automobile generation


name = 'Babs'
aka=Chitty Bang Bang 4,
Higham Special
production = one-off (1926)
body_style = open-wheel, front-engined racing car.
engine = Liberty L-12 V12 aero engine
transmission=final drive by exposed external chain-drive

designer=J. G. Parry-Thomas,
originally Clive Gallop
& Count Louis Zborowski
Babs was the land speed record car built and driven by John Parry-Thomas. It was powered by a 27-litre Liberty aero-engine

Babs began as 'Chitty 4', one of Count Louis Zborowski's series of aero-engined cars named 'Chitty Bang Bang'. As it was built at Zborowski's estate of Higham Park near Canterbury, it was also known as the Higham Special. Using a convert|450|hp|abbr=on V12 Liberty aero engine of 27 litres capacity, with a gearbox and chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz, it was the largest capacity racing car ever to run at Brooklands. Still not fully developed by the time of Zborowski's death in 1924, it was purchased from his estate by J.G. Parry-Thomas for the sum of £125. [cite web
title=Higham Special
url=http://www.britishmm.co.uk/history.asp?id=442
publisher= [http://www.britishmm.co.uk British Motor Manufacturers] ]

Parry-Thomas rechristened the car "Babs" and rebuilt it with four Zenith carburettors and his own design of pistons. [cite web
title=Thomas, John Godfrey Parry (1884–1927)
date=2004
publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
author=Jo Payne
url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69166
doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/69166
accessday=9 |accessmonth=Sept |accessyear=2006] In April 1926, Parry-Thomas used the car to win the land speed record at 171.02 mph (273.6 km/h).

"Babs", used exposed chains to connect the engine to the drive wheels while the high engine cover required him to drive with his head tilted to one side – the right. During a later record attempt at Pendine Sands, Wales on 3 March, 1927, the right-hand drive chain broke at a speed of 170 mph, partially decapitating him. "Babs" was buried where it landed, on the beach at Pendine.

There is still controversy as to whether Parry-Thomas was literally decapitated, and whether the drive chain was responsible for it. Fact|date=May 2008

After 40 years, the car was excavated and restored to running order over several years by Owen Wyn Owen. Today it is on display at the Pendine Museum of Speed. cite web
title=History of Pendine
url=http://www.sandspeedwales.co.uk/5907.html] cite web
title=Babs being recovered from the sand, showing the missing fatal drive chain
url=http://www.sandspeedwales.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/BABS~RT.jpg
format=photograph] cite web
title=Remaining drive chain on the left-hand side
url=http://www.sandspeedwales.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/BABS~Left.jpg
format=photograph]

References