Railton Special
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The Railton Special, later rebuilt as the Railton Mobil Special, is a one-off motor vehicle designed by Reid Railton and built for John Cobb's successful attempts at the land speed record in 1938.
It is currently on display at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, England.[1]
Design
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The vehicle was powered by two supercharged Napier Lion VIID (WD) W-12 aircraft engines.[2] These engines were the gift of Marion 'Joe' Carstairs, who had previously used them in her powerboat Estelle V.[3] Coupled together, these two engines made Template:Cvt @ 3,600 rpm, and Template:Cvt of torque. Multiple engines was not a new technique, having already been used by the triple-engined White Triplex and the Railton Special's contemporary rival, Captain Eyston's twin-engined Thunderbolt. With the huge powers thus available, the limitation was in finding a transmission and tyres that could cope. Reid Railton found a simple and ingenious solution to this by simply splitting the drive from each engine to a separate axle, giving four wheel drive.
The vehicle weighed over 3 tonnes and was Script error: No such module "convert". long, Script error: No such module "convert". wide and Script error: No such module "convert". high. The front wheels were Script error: No such module "convert". apart and the rear Script error: No such module "convert".. The National Physical Laboratory's wind tunnel was used for testing models of the body.[4]
Land speed record
On 15 September 1938, the Railton Special took the land speed record from Thunderbolt at Script error: No such module "convert"., also being the first to break the Script error: No such module "convert". barrier. Eyston re-took the record within 24 hours (357.50 mph / 575.34 km/h), holding it again until Cobb took it a year later on 23 August 1939 at a speed of Script error: No such module "convert"..
Further development
After the Second World War further development and sponsorship by Mobil Oil led to renaming as the Railton Mobil Special. It was the first ground vehicle to break Script error: No such module "convert". in a measured test. On 16 September 1947 John Cobb averaged Script error: No such module "convert". over the measured mile in both directions (385.6 & 403.1) to take the world land speed record, before the American Goldenrod set a new mark for piston-engined, wheel-driven LSR cars eighteen years later.
Notes
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- ↑ Accession number: 1955S00519.00001
- ↑ 400 MPH on Land, Motor 24 September 1947 reproduced in Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Paul Clifton, The Fastest Men on Earth: The Men and Cars That Smashed the World Land Speed Record, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1964
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Further reading
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References
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