|
Pendine Sands is a length of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches from Gilman Point in the west to Laugharne Sands in the east. The village of Pendine is close to the western end of Pendine Sands. In the early 1900s the sands were used as a venue for car and motor cycle races. From 1922 the annual Welsh TT motor cycle event was held at Pendine Sands. The firm, flat surface of the beach created a race track that was straighter and smoother than many major roads of the time. ''Motor Cycle'' magazine described the sands as "the finest natural speedway imaginable". ==Classic record attempts== In the 1920s it became clear that roads and race tracks were no longer adequate venues for attempts on the world land speed record. As record-breaking speeds approached 150 mph (240 km/h), the requirements for acceleration to top speed before the measured mile and safe braking distance afterwards meant that a smooth, flat, straight surface of at least in length was needed. The first person to use Pendine Sands for a world land speed record attempt was Malcolm Campbell. On September 25, 1924 he set a world land speed record of 146.16 mph (235.22 km/h) on Pendine Sands in his Sunbeam 350HP car ''Blue Bird''. Four other record-breaking runs were made on Pendine Sands between 1924 and 1927; two more by Campbell, and two by Welshman J. G. Parry-Thomas in his car ''Babs''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gfxvf )〕 The barrier was decisively broken, and Campbell raised the record to 174.22 mph (280.38 km/h) in February 1927 with his second ''Blue Bird''. On March 3, 1927 Parry-Thomas attempted to beat Campbell's record. On his final run while travelling at about the car crashed. There is an untrue urban myth that the exposed drive chain broke and partially decapitated him; ''Babs'' went out of control and rolled over. Parry-Thomas was the first driver to be killed in a world land speed record attempt. One further attempt at the Land Speed Record was made on Pendine sands later in 1927 by Forresti in Djelmo In June 2000 Don Wales, grandson of Malcolm Campbell and nephew of Donald Campbell, set the United Kingdom electric land speed record at Pendine Sands in ''Bluebird Electric 2'', achieving a speed of 137 mph (220 km/h). In 1933 Amy Johnson and her husband, Jim Mollison, took off from Pendine Sands in a de Havilland Dragon Rapide, ''G-ACCV'' "Seafarer", to fly non-stop to New York. Their aircraft ran out of fuel and was forced to crash-land at Bridgeport, Connecticut, just short of New York; both were seriously injured in the crash. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pendine Sands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|