The ''Railton Special'', later rebuilt as the ''Railton Mobil Special'', is a one-off

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...

land speed record The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de M ...

in 1938. It is currently on display at

Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum Thinktank, Birmingham (formerly known as simply Thinktank) is a science museum in Birmingham, England. Opened in 2001, it is part of Birmingham Museums Trust and is located within the Millennium Point (Birmingham), Millennium Point complex on ...

, England.

Design

The vehicle was powered by two

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically powered (usually by ...

Napier Lion VIID (WD) W-12 aircraft engines.400 MPH on Land, ''Motor'' 24 September 1947 reproduced in These engines were the gift of Marion 'Joe' Carstairs, who had previously used them in her powerboat ''Estelle V''. Coupled together, these two engines made @ 3,600 rpm, and of torque. Multiple engines was not a new technique, having already been used by the triple-engined

White Triplex The White Triplex (also known as the "Triplex Special" and the "Spirit of Elkdom") was an American land speed record car built for J. H. White and driven by Ray Keech. It was powered by three 27-litre Liberty L-12, Liberty Aircraft engine, aero en ...

and the ''Railton Specials 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. John Cobb en 1939

The vehicle weighed over 3 tonnes and was long, wide and high. The front wheels were apart and the rear . The National Physical Laboratory's

wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...

was used for testing models of the body.Paul Clifton, ''The Fastest Men on Earth: The Men and Cars That Smashed the World Land Speed Record'', London: Herbert Jenkins, 1964

Land speed record

On 15 September 1938, the ''Railton Special'' took the

from ''Thunderbolt'' at , also being the first to break the 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 .

Further development

After the Second World War further development and sponsorship by

Mobil Oil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after it and Mobil merged in 1999. A direct descenda ...

led to renaming as the Railton Mobil Special. It was the first ground vehicle to break in a measured test. On 16 September 1947 John Cobb averaged 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

References

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Design

Land speed record

Further development

Notes

Further reading

References

See also