A BROOKLANDS MYSTERY

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A BROOKLANDS MYSTERY

NAZZARO’S 120-M.P.H. LAP IN 1908 S0 far as I know, Brooklands has never been the setting for a full-dress V. mystery story:, frill, re is, hmvever, one mystery that I have never seen either completely propounded or adequately explained : that extraordinary lap of Nazzaro’s on the Fiat ” Alephistopheles ” in. 1908, when he WaS el( ,eked to do more than a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Capt. George Eyston, in his book about the Land Speed Record (” Fastest on Earth “), gives Lee Ghiness the credit for the first authenticated lap at over two miles a minute, during his attempts on the

ultimate speed record in 1922. After mentioning Nazzaro’s performance, he adds : ” But it is curious that though the electrical apparatus certainly registered this speed, the hand-timekeepers. Messrs. lEbblewhite and Dutton, iusle that lap only 107.98 ni.p.b,, although admittedly they timed from a different peint on the circuit.” What, then, I asked myself, is all this about ? Either the Fiat went round at 121.8t or it didn’t. The alleged lap WaS made on Whit Monday, 1908, during a matele race run as a result of a challefige issued by S. F. Edge. The ra’a. was to be the high-spot of the meeting, and was made particularly interesting since the drivers of the Napier and the Fiat were, respectively, the acknowledged masters of track and road technique. Nitzzaro, though admittedly he lout never driven before on the Tistek, was fresh In on winning the Targa Florio, the Kaiserpreis and the Grand Prix, and was pret ty vell fancied ; Newton, eni the other hand, was one of the star drivers for the Napier Works, and he had only lost one race tor them in the whole of the preceding season. On the Saturday before the race both cars had been in t rouble Nazzam’s engine hael had to be stripped right down and reassembled on the Sunday, and the unfortunate Newton stripped his first gear pinion as he was leaving the paddock for a final practice lap or so on Saturday night. However, by splendid efforts at

the works a new pinion was cut from a blank, and the car was tested on the highway in the small hours of Whit Monday morning. The great Match Race was to st trt on the banking opposite the end of the Finishing Straight, continue for six laps, and then the cars, instead of continuing round the Outer Circuit as is now the

custom, would turn into the Finishing Straight and finish in style in full view of the Paddock. The race was to be timed by the B.A.R.C.’s prowl new electric apparatus, which was worked by a strip crossing the track at a point on the Railway Straight, 490 yards after the start. Notwithstanding

this, Mr. Ebblewhite stationed himself at the Fork with his fatuous stop-watches and timed the race by hand for his own information. As to what happened in the race all authorities seem to agree. This is what the ” Automotor Journal ” has to say :— “Newton got oil splendidly mid secured a quarter of a mile’s lead in the first lap. By the end of the second lap there was less:

Sparc’ between them, but. not much. and everyone’ Vas at the piteh of ccitcmcnt. NVithpilt ?varning, the Napier broke down and the Fiat. flashed I >y at it speed which wle.; anywhere in the neighbourhood of 120 miles an hour ; for that was the offieially recorded speed for the third [sic]

By the time he came to write his ” Motoring Reminiscences,” S. F. Edge had also accepted this figure. But at the time of the race he was by no IlleMIS convinced lty tlic elect Heal timing machine, and, as was his habit, wrote indignant letters to the BA. l{.(., the R.A.C. and the Press. Before continuing with the story I will here set down a little table showing times and speeds given by the two methods of timing :—

The ” Autamottir Journal,” whom Ehby had furnished with his stap-watch figures, did its best prove t hat both the methods were right. It argued dial, the discrepancy Was title t t he I %-‘,) imekeepers being situated at different points on the circuit. Tluk cars would olivieusly go slower, they argued, on the hill round the banking than they went when flat-out on the Railway Straight. Therefore, by an unIsappy chance it was possible in timing three laps of a race to get a lap which included the fast section twice and the slow section only once. 11 never looked very convincing, it must be confessed, and the theory was lin Illy busted ” when someone else did sums with the ” “

own figures, which proved that il’ Nazzaro had actually been hipping in the way they showed, he would have had to do one bit of a lap at. 138 m.p.h. and the other bit of the same lap at 7 t odd.

In their following issue the paper very handsomely admitted all this, but pointed out that the sums, as sums go, were pretty hot. The trouble was ilia t they were based upon the hand-timers’ ii!fures laid that these were quite unotill’i;t1, since the B.A.R.C. took no responsibility for them.

Thc belligerent Mr. Edge, meanwhile, had been carrying On a letter-writing duel with the entrant of the Fiat car, Mr. D’Arey Baker. The matter was complicated by the fact that the Compet it ions Committee of the R.A.C. had not yet uttered upon the subject. It had not homologated the figures, and clearly, in Mr. Edge’s opinion, never would. Furthermore, besides the difference between the two sets of times, there was the troublesome question of the eyewitness accounts. Let me allow Mr. Edge to speak for himself. Here is .a letter of his to the Press elated June 24th, 1908 :— . . ts> the t Automotor Journal,’ in the first lap Nazzaro gained Milt, seconds on Newton. Now to gain, nine seconds at the speed Nazzaro was certifiefl to be travelling, viz., 105.2 m.p.h., lw would have had to gain on Newton 460 yards in the first lap. Every person Will) was present knows perfectly well that he did not do this. . •”

He goes on to point out that at the speeds alleged the end of the second lap would have seen the Fiat a fifth of a mile ahead of Newton, whereas all eyewitnesses agree that it was a quarter of a mile behind when the Napier’s crankshaft broke and it had to ret ire. This certainly is a peculiar thing ; but the extraordinary misplacing of the ears is not confined to the eleetric timing. The FI,Iilewhite figures also show that the Fiat was faster than the Napier from the word go ; 2.2 seconds faster, in fact, for the standing lap, and 2.8 seconds for the flying one. How the Napier entry eould have been lending, in the face d these figures I have not flie slightest idea.

The first, and natural. reaction of the present-day reader to this controversy will be 1-1 distrust the efficiency of the electric apparatus. After all, 1 908 is a long time ago, :-uut we must have learnt a lot about elect Ii(‘-t lining devices in the last 33 years. A study of the two sets of times does not support, this mistrust, however. In fact, it prompts a question which would have been of the utmost value in solving the mystery if it had been raised at the time.

According to the stop-watch figures for the first two laps of the race neither driver varied his lap-time by more than a fraction of a second. NOW I put it to you, is it at all likely that neither of these two famous and expert drivers, in a race on which so muelt prestige and publicity depended, could return a flying lap appreciably better than his time from a standing Start ? It does seem odd, does it not ? Now, if we turn to the electrically recorded times, this difficulty has disappeared. In the second lap Nazzaro beat his standing lap by some 15 per cent. and Newton did approximately the same. It begins to look as though the despised and primitive electrical timing of 1908 niay have been nearer the mark than the haisl-timers. The more so as the latter had to stand at the Fork for the whole race, and had to tune the ears by eye as they passed at the far end of the Finishing Straight. I Why not as they went over the Fork itself f Ed.] The last word in the cont roversy must, I suppose, be given to the B.A.C. Here is a cutting from the Ntitiorrkotor Journal,” dated August 8th, 1908 :— “. . . to put at rest all doubt as to the accuracy of the time-re,:ords of the Fiat and Napier ears, the tsspes used in the au ton s it ic apparatus were Submitted to the It.A.C. After being examined with

the utmost care by the ( pe t itions Committee, they have decided tin’ t they are entirely satisfied with the accuracy of the records.”

So there you have the evidence in the “Great Brooklands Mystery.” How fast do you think the Fiat actually went ?