Pendine Sands in Wales has seen its fair share of world record attempts. It
was here that Sir Malcolm Campbell first set the world land speed record of
146.16mph in 1924. Three years later he visited the seven-mile stretch of
sand again and behind the wheel of the Bluebird upped it to 174.22mph.
Where better than these hard flat sands to attempt our own world record: the
fastest speed achieved by a surfboard being pulled by a car.
This is not quite as esoteric as it might sound. For a start there are plenty
of official records for more obscure feats (fastest motorised piece of
furniture and longest backwards motorbike ride are two that spring to mind).
Neither was this a “soft” record: the chances of injury if we got it wrong
were quite high.
We needed someone plucky and lightweight so we enlisted the help of Stephanie
Rowsell, the female British kite surfing champion, a classic surfer girl
with a nice line in gallows humour, who told us on the phone that it “sounds
like a laugh”. Next we had to find a manufacturer willing to let us borrow a
car to drive through salt water and sand. Vauxhall recklessly agreed to lend
us a 2.8 litre turbocharged V6 VXR Vectra estate.
The plan was simple. A rope would be attached to the rear tow point of the
Vectra. Rowsell would hold onto the rope to get a “tow” and gather speed
across the water, like a water-skier. With only 40ft of rope, the car would
have to be driven through the shallows to give the surfer a safe depth to
work in.
Measuring the speed would be tricky because the car’s speedometer would be
affected by wheelspin and might not tally with the speed of the surfer. To
overcome this we fitted Rowsell with a GPS tracking unit and recorded every
run, filming and photographing all the evidence. The surfboard itself was
unmodified except for smaller fins to avoid catching the sand beneath the
shallow water.
The reason the sands have been used for land speed records is that they are
long and, when the tide is out, flat and smooth. In the days before
America’s Bonneville Salt Flats gained a monopoly on speed attempts they
were regarded as the perfect place to pit man and machine against physics.
However, there is a darker side to the location.
Back in 1927 the Welshman John Parry-Thomas, determined to break Campbell’s
speed of 174mph, came to these sands with a strange looking car named Babs.
It featured an aeroplane engine and was in theory capable of smashing the
record. While attempting the record run the exposed chain belt of the engine
came loose and snapped. It flew back, partially decapitating Parry-Thomas,
and the car went into a roll. He was the first man to be killed attempting
the land speed record.
The sands kept Babs for 42 years until the car was exhumed and restored in
1969. The tale was a reminder that our record attempt could end in disaster
if we didn’t pay attention and get it right. “If the worst happens,” said
Rowsell as she waded out to sea, “there is no way that you are burying my
board in those dunes.”
On the first attempt we started slowly. The car’s wheels gripped the wet sand
and we were away smoothly. Out on the water the board didn’t fare so well.
With a hop, skip and a flop, it dumped Rowsell unceremoniously on her
backside.
“We need to get speed up more quickly and gain momentum to stay up and start
to plane,” Rowsell shouted above the waves.
“Hard acceleration coming up,” I yelled back.
The car tugged on the rope and Rowsell was ejected from her stirrups
instantly. Caked in wet sand she looked across at me, didn’t say a word, and
strapped herself onto the board again.
Two tries later and she was standing long enough to pick up speed. The main
problem was keeping a constant velocity through the shallow water. Whenever
the water depth changed, so would the car’s speed. If it became suddenly
deeper the car slowed significantly. When this happened the rope slackened,
causing the board to start to sink. Once it hit the sand it catapulted
Rowsell head first into the shallow water.
The tide was now at its lowest point, giving us our best opportunity for
maximum speed. Our resident Kite Surfing Association trainer double-checked
the equipment. Sitting in the car I pressed the Sport button and said a
silent prayer.
On the final run of the day the car clawed its way over the slippery sand.
Rowsell skated across the water with the nonchalant gusto of a car-surfing
pro. The spray was blinding and the sand being kicked up behind the Vectra
looked like a desert storm chasing me in the rear-view mirror.
“That’s it,” I shouted coming off the throttle and waving out of the window.
“That was ripping,” said Rowsell. “I bounced that sand bar a couple of times
but we were going so fast I just had to ride the board flat and hang on.”
Back on dry land we settled down to examine the data and toast our success.
The GPS readout was just 36mph, slower than I had hoped (the car’s
speedometer had read 50mph), but hell, it was a record.
A certificate arrived last week from Guinness World Records which I like to
think puts me and Rowsell in the same exalted company as Campbell and Andy
Green, the current land speed record holder.
It said: “The fastest speed achieved on a surfboard while being towed by a car
is 57.93km/h (36mph) by Stephanie Rowsell, who was towed by Ben Collins in
association with The Sunday Times InGear, on Pendine Beach, Carmarthenshire.”
Beat it if you dare.
Great (and not so great) records of our time
- The fastest land vehicle in the world is the ThrustSSC, a British-designed
jet-powered car. In 1997 Andy Green reached 763.035mph while driving it,
breaking the sound barrier in the process. Last year Green became a double
world record holder when he piloted the JCB Dieselmax to 350mph, the fastest
speed achieved by a diesel-powered car.
- A French TGV train last week broke the world speed record for
conventional-rail trains, reaching 357.2mph. The 25000bhp TGV was equipped
with larger wheels to cover more ground with each rotation, allowing it to
reach twice the normal cruising speed of France’s high-speed trains.
- Billy Baxter holds the world record for the greatest speed achieved on a
motorcycle while riding blindfolded. He reached 164.87mph on a 1200cc
Kawasaki Ninja at RAF Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, in 2003.
- The fastest recorded skydive was by Joseph Kittinger, a former US air force
pilot, who hit a peak velocity of 614mph after jumping from a helium balloon
in 1960. Starting from an altitude of 102,800ft, he was in freefall for 4min
36sec.
- The world speed skiing record is held by Simone Origone, an Italian skier,
who reached 156mph at Les Arc in France last year.
- Riding a specially modified £6,000 bicycle, Fred Rompelberg, a Dutch
cyclist, reached a speed of 166.944mph in 1995 — the fastest on a bike.
Rompelberg was riding in the slipstream of a dragster, which helped him to
attain this almost unbelievable speed.
- A motorised sofa, powered by a Mini 1300cc engine, reached a top speed of
87mph in 1998, making it the fastest piece of furniture. The vehicle, built
by Edd China and David Davenport, is licensed for use on UK roads.
- Karl Traber, a German high-wire artiste, set the fastest speed record for
riding a motorcycle across a 1,000ft wire in 2003 in Beeskow, Germany.
Traber reached a maximum speed of 60.2mph on his KTM GS 250 motorcycle.
- A French windsurfer holds the world record for the fastest speed achieved by
a wind-powered sailing vessel. Finian Maynard reached 48.7 knots (56mph) in
2005 on a course near the French town of Saintes Maries de la Mer.
Previously the record was held by racing yachts.
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