Speaker Phil Holt (Gareth Tarr).
Donald
Campbell’s helmet and other
equipment (Gareth Tarr).
Malcolm, however, didn’t want his son to
repeat his feats, worrying that he would kill himself. When he died on New Year’s Eve 1948 Sir Malcolm left his family well off, but insisted in his will that his record-making machinery and supporting equipment be auctioned off for charity. Despite this, Donald managed to acquire his father’s boat, Blue Bird K4, and gain the support of a key member of his father’s team – Leo Villa. Donald mostly used K4 for racing rather than breaking records and when John Cobb was killed in Crusader on Loch Ness in 1952 trying to break the water speed record it was clear that it was time for a re-design.
Specialist boat designers Ken and Lew Norris came to the aid of Donald. Having extensively viewed film of Cobb’s crash they came to the conclusion that a record-breaking boat needed more stability at the front, which led to a design incorporating three planing points. Despite the record at the time being 178mph, Donald had set his sights on 250mph and a jet engine would be required rather than the hitherto propeller-driven mechanisms. Vickers offered one of their Beryl turbo-jet engines. Donald was also keen that the boat was not made of wood, so the new craft was made in metal with bodywork by Motor Panels, owned by Alfred Owen, a sponsor. Finally handed over to Donald in November 1954, in total the new craft had cost £18,000 and was named Blue Bird K7 (Donald’s lucky number was seven, hence no K5 or K6). Donald was a great self-publicist, realising the importance of sponsorship, and in the summer of
17
1955 amid much press interest he raised the record to 202.32mph at Ullswater. This attracted the attention of the Americans who invited Donald over to improve the record on Lake Mead near Las Vegas (at their expense). Initially this wasn’t successful; the water was often choppy and sightseers got in the way, Blue Bird K7 once sinking after taking action to avoid a pleasure boat in its path! Eventually K7 achieved 216.2mph and as a publicity stunt Donald put the boat on display in the Sierra Nevada Hotel in Las Vegas. In the late 50s Donald was at the peak of his fame, becoming friends with the likes of Hughie Green and Billy Butlin who were to help with sponsorship. During this period he broke the water speed record four times, eventually lifting it to 260mph. He also became a CBE in the 1956 Christmas honours list. Now the target was to break the land speed record and water speed record in the same year. Bluebird-Proteus CN7 took four to five years to develop and cost, with the help of 69 British sponsors, a total of £1 million. The engine was a Bristol-Siddeley Proteus that drove all four wheels (it was still a requirement at that time that a land speed record car had driven wheels). A very advanced design, it was the first car to have telemetry. During runs at Bonneville in 1960 Campbell crashed CN7, breaking his skull in the process. The car was rebuilt with new wheels and a tail-fin was added. The Australian Prime Minister offered to host Donald’s next record attempt and a suitable course at Lake Eyre was found. Initially the record attempts were thwarted
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