Golden Arrow (car)

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Golden Arrow was a land speed record racer built in Britain

to regain the world land speed record from USA. Henry Golden Arrow
Segrave drove the car at Daytona Beach and exceeded the
previous record by 24 mph or 39 km/h.

Contents
1 The car
1.1 Irving
1.2 Backers
1.3 Suppliers
2 References
3 External links The Irving-Napier Golden Arrow
at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu
Overview
The car Production one-off (1928)

Built for ex-Sunbeam racing driver Major Henry Segrave to Designer John Samuel Irving (1880-1953)
take the Land Speed Record from Ray Keech, Golden Arrow Body and chassis
was one of the first streamlined land speed racers, with a Body style front-engined land speed record car.
pointed nose and tight cowling. Power was provided by a
Powertrain
23.9 litre (1462 ci) W12 Napier Lion VIIA aeroengine,[1]
specially prepared by Napiers, designed for the Supermarine Engine 925 hp, 23.9 litre naturally aspirated
aircraft competing in the Schneider Trophy, producing 925 Napier Lion W12 aero engine,
hp (690 kW) at 3300 rpm.[2] ice cooling, no radiator
Transmission 3-speed, final drive through twin
The car was designed by ex-Sunbeam engineer, aero-engine
driveshafts running either side of
designer and racing manager Captain John Samuel Irving
driver
(1880-1953).[3] It featured ice chests in the sides through
which coolant ran and a telescopic sight on the cowl to help
avoid running diagonally. The Rootes brothers, friends of Segrave and Irving, provided the Irving-designed
individual aluminium body panels from Thrupp and Maberly.[1]

In March 1929, Segrave went to Daytona, and after a sole practice run,
on 11 March, in front of 120,000 spectators,[2] set a new flying mile at
231.45 mph (372.46 km/h), easily beating Keech's old speed of
207.55 mph (334.00 km/h). Two days later, Lee Bible's White Triplex
crashed and killed a photographer.

Daytona Beach was closed and Segrave was unable to make further runs
to achieve the planned higher speeds.
The Golden Arrow in 1929.
Segrave was killed attempting a water speed record the next year.
Golden Arrow never ran again.

Irving

Contemporary reports refer to the car as the Irving-Napier Golden Arrow.[4]

He had left Sunbeam and Irving's new employers, Humfrey-Sandberg, granted him permission to use part of his
time designing and constructing Golden Arrow for ex-Sunbeam driver Henry Segrave. Golden Arrow was,
Segrave said, very docile compared with other cars of its kind.[5] After the first trial run when he established no
goggles were necessary at 182 mph Segrave drove the car up some planks to get it off the beach then drove it
back along the main street of Daytona to its garage.[5]

The sponsors required a British brand name for the engine and Napier
was chosen. Dunlop's tyres were not warranted safe beyond 250 mph so
the planned maximum of 274 mph was pulled back. To minimise frontal
area Irving based the shape of the nose on the racing Supermarine S.5's
cowling. Leading fairings in front of the front wheels gave no useful
improvement and they were abandoned. An irreducible minimum was
arrived at for the size of the cockpit because it had to be large enough
for a sixteen-inch steering wheel believed to be needed to give sufficient
leverage. In the end a large tail fin was adopted in case of side gusts, it
A Napier Lion II engine cutaway
located the centre of gravity an inch in front of the centre of pressure.
The whole shell was shaped to exert a downward air pressure to keep
the driving wheels on the ground and assist stability but a further
260 lbs of lead ballast was added to the tail. The twin prop-shafts were
given strong casings in case they came apart at high speed. The axle
was given no differential. At that time the car was notable among land
speed record cars for having 4-wheel brakes. Suspension was by half-
elliptic leaf springs all round, axle travel was limited to just 1 inches
in front and 1 at the rear axle. The car was built at KLG Works on
Kingston Hill.[5]
Engine fairings removed
Segrave found he could not use all the throttle opening until past 2400
rpm, or, in bottom gear, until the car was moving in excess of 55 mph.
The engine ran throughout without a misfire and the extra ice cube calling turned out to be unnecessary.
Segrave made just the two runs. Including that first test run it is doubtful if the car has travelled as much as 40
miles in its whole life.[5]

Irving was helped by chief draughtsman W U Snell, his brother lent by Alvis to supervise the car's building and
his daughter who dealt with all the associated progress-chasing and administrative work.[5]

The engine cannot be run again because the cylinder blocks were not properly inhibited and are now too
porous. Wakefield / Castrol presented the car to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in 1958.[5]

Backers

Sir Charles Wakefield (Castrol)[6]

O J S Piper, Portland (Red Triangle) Cement (Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers)[4][5]
H O D Segrave (the driver)[6]

Suppliers

Engine - Napier & Son, Acton

Body - Thrupp & Maberly, Rootes brothers
Assembly - Robinhood Engineering Works, Newlands, Putney Vale
Spark plugs - KLG
Steering - Marles
Chassis frame - John Thompson (Wolverhampton)
Shock absorbers - T B Andre, London
 Ball bearings - Ransome & Marles
Cardan shafts - Hardy Spicer
Gearbox - Gillett Stephen and Co, Bookham
Brake operation - Clayton Dewandre, Lincoln
Radiators - Gloucester Aircraft
Special steels - Vickers Armstrong
Fuel - British Petroleum
Oil - C. C. Wakefield & Co[6]

References
"Golden Arrow, between earlier and later land speed record cars at Beaulieu". twopsgoss. External link in
|publisher= (help)[7]

1. "Golden Arrow". World of Automobiles. Volume 7. London: Orbis Publishing Ltd. 1974. p. 799.
2. Tom Northey. (1974). "Land Speed Record".World Of Automobiles. Volume 10. London: Orbis Publishing Ltd.
pp. 116166.
3. Captain J. S. Irving.The Times, Tuesday, Mar 31, 1953; pg. 8; Issue 52584.
4. Interview: Captain J. S. Irving, designer of the Irving-Napier Special.
Motor Sport, page 7 May 1929
5. The inside story of the Irving-NapierGolden Arrow. Motor Sport, page 56 July 1981
6. John Bullock, The Rootes Brothers, Patrick Stephens, Sparkford SomersetISBN 1852604549
7. "National Motor Museum collection"(https://web.archive.org/web/20110305105211/http://www.beaulieu.co.uk:80/beau
lieu/motorcollection). National Motor Museum. Archived fromthe original (http://www.beaulieu.co.uk/beaulieu/motorc
ollection) on 5 March 2011.

External links
"Fastest Thing On Wheels", June 1929, Popular Science
Wikimedia Commons has
Eric Dymock, Robert Horne's Golden Dream, Extracted from media related to Golden
Sunday Times Supplement May 1990 Arrow (land speed racer).
National Motor Museum website

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Arrow_(car)&oldid=785178149"

Categories: Vehicles powered by Napier Lion engines Wheel-driven land speed record cars
Automobiles powered by aircraft engines

This page was last edited on 12 June 2017, at 02:36.

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