Bluebird Electric aims for 800kph

By CARSIFU | 14 June 2011
LONDON: The British team behind the Bluebird Electric project intends to set a new world land speed record of more than 800kph.



Don Wales, grandson of English racer Sir Malcolm Campbell, has been maintaining the Campbell record-breaking tradition since establishing the UK Land Speed Record for an electric car in 1998.









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Wales





In 2009, he set the current World Land Speed Record for a steam car of 238kph.



Pendine Sands, an 11km beach site in southern Wales and nearly 400km from here, was the spot for Malcolm Campbell's early land speed records in the 1920s when he drove his Bluebird cars.



Wales also named his record cars Bluebird and visited Pendine Sands in 2000 to set the current UK Land Speed Record for electric cars at 220kph.



The modern Bluebird is being readied for speed trials at the beach location on July 2-3.



It is being used as a test and development vehicle to try different battery technologies and drive units as part of Wales' goal to set an electric record of more than 800kph in 2013.



For this attempt, a new car is to be built by Delta Motorsport, based at Silverstone.



During the trials, Wales also hopes to best his grandfather’s 234kph land speed record set with a combustion engine on the same beach in 1924.












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The feat in 2000.



Castrol has come onboard as a major sponsor of the Bluebird Electric project. The company has supported record attempts by Wales before; it supported Sir Malcolm and Wales uncle, Donald Campbell, and has a history of world record attempts going back more than 100 years.