British Babs – 'a tear in a wind tunnel'

"All this would be funny..." But incredibly touching and sad. It seems like a fictional plot. However, what happened is reality. The facts are confirmed by photographs, witness statements, medical reports. Burial and subsequent extraction of remains car from the sand dunes of Pendine Sands took place in full compliance with British law and formalities…


We are talking about the great and long-suffering model "Babs". Its real history was turned by its descendants into a farce, sometimes into a drama, and sometimes just a legend. It is difficult to find such a hero in the mechanical engineering industry.

Record Hunters

Who invented the car with the inscription "Babs" on the side and why? However, the last one is clear - to catch up, overtake, outrun, surpass everything that moves on the chest of the planet on wheels.


Three speed-obsessed gentlemen had something to do with the sports car. The first on the list is the count, mechanic and pilot Louis Voroff Zborowski (1895-1924). The heir to estates, apartment buildings and solid bank accounts could have lived a beautiful life. But he built and personally tested cars, and participated in sports competitions.

In the 20s of the last century, many minds were concerned with the idea of ​​how to “marry” the land transport с by air. The stage when propellers were glued to mechanical means of transportation has passed. Such an experience is described in the material about Helica de Leyat. Not it!

"In order for the possible to appear, it is necessary to try the impossible again and again," once taught the writer Hermann Hesse. We suppose that Sir Zborowski was a diligent student of the German writer. In any case, with enviable persistence, time after time, he attached the legendary American Liberty L-12 engine to a passenger car chassis. Almost succeeded...

Features of the bolide and the fate of the creator

The fourth of his cars, which promised to be the fastest of all existing ones, the developer christened Chitty Bang Bang – “Chitty Bang Bang”. It did bang, but much later, and not with the mastermind behind the wheel…


And then, in the prosperous year of 1924, the count's creation was approaching completion. Of course, it was a traditional racing configuration - a streamlined capsule on wheels. The car was placed in a wind tunnel. After the tests were completed, it was aptly named "a tear": a drop of moisture, as is known, has an ideal aerodynamic shape.

Indeed, even the chain drive to the rear drive wheels was covered with a fairing. The drive element, by the way, like the gearbox, was borrowed by the designer from the pre-war Blitzen Benz. We mentioned the glorious champion of 1911 in the article about Fiat s76.

Louis installed a stunning thing under the hood – an airplane “Liberty”. There is an interesting story connected with the unit. They say that when America needed a powerful aircraft engine in 1917, the best mechanical engineers from all over the country were gathered. They were locked in some Washington hotel with pencils and Whatman paper. Five days later, the “prisoners” presented a design project for an engine, which was then mass-produced by all the major auto companies in the States.


However, here are the characteristics of the aviation monster:

✅ volume - 27 l
✅ Number of cylinders – 12 with V-shaped arrangement
✅ power – 400 hp at 2000 rpm
✅ dry weight – 383,3 kg

So, the Englishman's business was successfully moving towards the final. Success, kettledrums, and enthusiastic headlines in the press loomed ahead. But everything turned out so that the newspapers printed obituaries: the fearless Louis Zborowski died at the 1924 Italian Grand Prix, when he was leading one of the Mercedes to victory. The guy was 29 years old.
.

Second Gentleman

We come to the next car fan. His name was John Godfrey Parry-Thomas (1884-1927). He was not born an aristocrat, he was not the "Bentley Boy". He studied and worked. From 1913 he headed the engineering department of Leyland Motors.


The company produced trucks и buses. In 60 years of existence, it entered the passenger car market only once with the magnificent luxury roadster Eight. The author was Thomas, an inventor and holder of several patents in electrical engineering and auto mechanics.

But one day, in the early 20s, he locked the doors of his office and never returned to his desk. He devoted himself entirely to the "religion" of the internal combustion engine and auto racing. Even before the count's death, the sportsman won 38 races of various levels and broke several records.

The Birth and Death of "Babs"

In 1925, an enthusiast bought an unfinished Chitty for 125 pounds sterling. He began the upgrade by changing the name – Babs was born. Then the mechanic installed 4 new Zenith carburetors and made the pistons himself. The under-hood "herd" was partially modernized and increased by 50 "horses".



In 1926, the long-awaited conquest of speed took place on the compacted 11-kilometer beach of Wales. They say that the pilot controlled the 1483-kilogram projectile with his head tilted to the side: the high engine casing did not allow him to see the road. There is a grain of truth in the statement. Let's remember the dimensions of the Liberty: width - 685,8 mm, height - 1054,1 mm. But photographs show that the body panels did not block the view of the track.

Whatever the case, the roadster flew down the straight with acceleration capable of bringing a heart attack faster than the finish line. The chronometers froze at 276,46 km/h. John's name also burst onto the pages of the coveted Guinness Book of Records with lightning speed.

For a year, the figure was not surpassed by any other contender for the title of "fastest car on the planet." Then Blue Bird, the "racing plane," in a blaze of technological glory, surpassed the bar set by "Babs." Parry-Thomas, the acrimonious triumph of the previous year, returned to shore to snatch and reaffirm his lost status.


However, he did not take into account that the mechanism of his bolide was outdated. On a cloudy day on March 3, 1927, eyewitnesses watched as the rocket flew along the dunes at a speed of almost 200 km/h. The chain broke, the roadster turned over... The racer's headless body was pulled out from under the burning wreckage.

Funeral

Someone had the strange idea to bury the unfortunate pile of iron. In motorsport practice, a vehicle damaged in an accident is disposed of or restored. Sent to a museum, after all.

But here, under the impression of the tragedy of the moment, they decided to bury the culprit at the site of the disaster. The act was barbaric, disrespectful: the seat was cut, the dials were broken, everything that could be was mangled.

The outstanding model, the fruit of the labors and brainstorming of two engineers, their universal love, was anathematized by the people at their own discretion. The press flashed: "Buried alive."

The Third Gentleman

And so the mighty "Babs" lay in Welsh soil for 40 years until Win Owen appeared on the scene in 1967. Fortunately, there will never be any shortage of them - lovers of scraping rust off historical rarities.


Owen requested permission from the authorities to "exhume" the body. It turned out that the "grave" found using old photographs was located on the territory of a secret British missile testing ground.

The military was stubborn, but still agreed to excavate on the condition that Thomas's relatives would not object. An equally stubborn fan of old-timers spent two years searching for the deceased's relatives. Many more ebbs and flows passed before the deceased's nephew showed up and signed the relevant papers.

An examination of the discovered auto components showed that the cause of the crash could have been a fallen off slope or a broken rear axle. Skeptics thought it was hopeless to reconstruct the car: sea water and sand had done their work thoroughly. But the engine was surprisingly well preserved.

Owen danced from there: he replaced a small part of the parts according to the original drawings. He recreated the body practically from scratch. But he carefully inserted the preserved "native" fragments. The history of the roadster, overgrown with myths and speculations, touched and stirred up caring motorists, other citizens of Great Britain. People helped with money, advice, spare parts and materials.


When the reborn was taken out for testing in the 70s, it refused to start with a "crooked" starter. A Land Rover from a neighbor's garage was used as a pusher. The engine did not start until the towed vehicle reached 60 km/h.

The event attracted many spectators. All traffic rules were violated on the highway. In fact, the traffic stopped. The police intervened. But, carried away by the process of "reviving" the old man, they waved their hand at the disorder, and themselves began to push the champion of the 20s.

In 2007, England celebrated the 100th anniversary of the famous Goodwood Motor Show. It is easy to guess who was the central character of the event: of course, the "tear in the wind tunnel". And not only in it...