John Cobb

Author

admin

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

It is tragic that John Cobb’s speed career should be terminated by an accident to his jet speedboat, as he attained the distinction of being the first man to achieve 200 m.p.h. on the water.

John Rhodes Cobb was born in Surrey in 1899 and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He began his racing career in Warde’s 10-litre chain-drive Fiat at Brooklands, and raced in a far greater number of makes than many people imagine. His main love, however, was for the Brooklands outer-circuit, over which he set up some very high speeds, first in the 10½-litre V12 Delage, later in the 24-litre Napier-Railton, with which he set the lap record to 143.4 m.p.h. He loved the Weybridge Track and willingly wrote a Foreword to each volume of Boddy’s “Story of Brooklands.”

But Cobb also took a notable series of long-distance records in the Napier-Railton at Montlhery and Utah, holding at one time every world’s record from 1 to 24 hours. He then went on to try his calm hands at the wheel of a Land Speed Record car, his Railton Special taking this honour before the war and after the war was over raising the speed to 394.2 m.p.h., exceeding 400 m.p.h. on land for the first time on one run. He was also the first man to exceed 350 m.p.h. in a motor car.

In a world where temperament is rife and line-shooting and self-advertisement consequently not infrequent, John Cobb stood out as of big modest, calm, almost self-effacing disposition. It is sad that such a charming fastest-man-on-earth should follow Segrave to end his career in full flight out on the water. The Field loses a talented motoring editor, and the sporting world a splendid personality. Our sympathy goes out in full measure to the gallant lady, his wife, who watched his attempts to regain for his country the world’s water-speed record.