Practically Classics Forum

OFFS!!!!! Here we go again! Page 6 of the September edition - apparently Donald Campbell's land speed record still stands!

Does anyone at PC check their facts?

It does. Please explain why you believe that this isn't the case. Preferably with no more than one gratuitous screamer and/or upper case character per word.

JPB wrote:It does. Please explain why you believe that this isn't the case. Preferably with no more than one gratuitous screamer and/or upper case character per word.

Explained here:

http://practicallyclassics.phpbbhosts.c ... f=7&t=6148

And I suspect he's right. I'm another one that can't stand sloppy journalism, if Eric chooses to get emotional over it then that's all right with me.

Not to be a pedant *cough* but having just checked my handy Guinness book of world records 2015, The land speed record for a wheel driven car has been held by Donald Campbell since 17th July 1964.
As it is printed in a book written by the organisation responsible for world records, I am inclined to believe it.
Guinness records website is pants but it is available on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

mk 3 escort van...

TerryG wrote: As it is printed in a book written by the organisation responsible for world records, I am inclined to believe it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

The FIA is the governing body responsible for automotive land speed records (except for motorbikes where it's the FIM). So I'll go by what they say.

TerryG wrote:Not to be a pedant *cough* but having just checked my handy Guinness book of world records 2015, The land speed record for a wheel driven car has been held by Donald Campbell since 17th July 1964.
As it is printed in a book written by the organisation responsible for world records, I am inclined to believe it.
Guinness records website is pants but it is available on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

That makes sense, maybe because I'm a pedant too?
Rich's post is, IMHO, open to debate because, as anyone knows, it's not the Escort, it's the Astramax that was famously proved to be the fastest car in the world by VBH, on the Anglesey circuit in the early '90s. Or was it Steve Berry? I get that pair mixed up sometimes.

TerryG wrote:Not to be a pedant *cough* but having just checked my handy Guinness book of world records 2015, The land speed record for a wheel driven car has been held by Donald Campbell since 17th July 1964.
As it is printed in a book written by the organisation responsible for world records, I am inclined to believe it.
Guinness records website is pants but it is available on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

I have found a copy of the 2000 edition of the Guinness Book of Records lurking on my bookshelves. I had completely forgotten about it and I must say that it seems a very dumbed-down version of the publication that I fondly remember from my youth!

Looking at the relevant page for speed records it has a bizarrely inconsistent approach in that under "Fastest Land Speed" it cites the land speed record set by Thrust SSC at 763 mph but under "Highest Speed Reached by a Rocket Car" it cites the average speed over a run in one direction achieved by the Blue Flame and under "Highest Speed Reached in a Wheel Driven Car" it cites the highest peak speed reached by Speed-o-Motive. If they are interested in the actual fastest speed achieved by each class of vehicle rather than any land speed record then at least for the sake of consistency they should state that Thrust SSC achieved a peak speed 771 mph on one of its runs?

Anyway surely the strangest inconsistency is that in 2000 they are quoting the achievements of Al Teague in Speed-o-Motive yet by 2015 they have forgotten about him!?