Electric car to go 280km/h
2010-11-10 09:23
MAD MOWER: Don Wales at the Pendine sands with his record breaking lawnmower. Sir Malcolm Campbell’s grandson wishes to now go 800km/h in a battery powered car.
A scion of the world’s most famous speed-records family is making an attempt to best his electric-car speed record.
Don Wales has announced his intention to shatter the 223km/h record he set back in August 2000 with the Bluebird Electric at the famous 11km length of Pedine Sands on the west coast of Wales.
He's a grandson of the legendary Sir Malcolm Campbell and he wants to post an electric car speed record in excess of 250km/h – the speed his grandfather achieved at Pedine in 1925.
CENTENARY CELEBRATION
Wales hopes for an even swifter time though. “I'd like to match his record of 1927 – 280km/h," said the man who made his name as photographer before cultivating his family heritage of breaking speed records.
The attempt is part of the Campbell family celebration year of the centenary of Sir Malcolm Campbell's first christening a a car called Bluebird at Brooklands in 1911.
Wales already holds a collection of eclectic speed records. In May 2009 he posted a speed record for lawnmowers - 141km/h - and ultimately he hopes to set a land speed record of 800km/h in a battery car. This achievement would show that the ends of cleaner electric car technology and extreme performance are not incommensurate.
Undoubtedly his grandpa would have approved…
