In another time and in another place I was a car racing fan. In fact, car racing is what started my passion for motor sports, specifically Sir Jack Brabham’s F1 world championship win in 1959.
And, it was this golden era of racing that saw frantic activity in the area of the Land Speed Record. The record stood for many years (since 1947) by Britain’s Jon Cobb at 394mph (pre-metric days saw the LSR always being recorded in Imperial units.) But the early 1960’s saw a huge flurry of record-breaking. For Britain, the cudgels were taken up by Sir Donald Campbell (son of Malcolm) in his turbine-powered Bluebird. On the other side of the pond, a whole collection of American engineers/drivers built cars and, in the space of just a few years, raised the record from nearly 400mph to over 600mph. Some of these efforts were high-budget jobs, like Craig Breedlove’s “Spirit of America” and some were home-spun jobs with zero budget like the Arfons brothers, Walt and Art with their “Wingfoot Express” and the “Green Monster (at the top of the page). The fact that Campbell ultimately broke the wheel-drive LSR in Australia in 1964 added to the fascination.
Anyway, the “Green Monster” story is an amazing one and I have watched several docos on it so I was delighted when a friend posted up a video on Facebook yesterday which I had not seen before. It is long (around 44 minutes) and comprises a promotional film made by Firestone Tyres at the time, but, if you have any interest in the LSR, you will surely find this to be riveting stuff.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
Art Arfons and the Green Monster