Podium Legends Collection # 1

Bluebird Proteus CN7 at speed on Lake Eyre, May 1964

A record-breaking car at speeds over 350mph! This dramatic image of the test runs for the World Land Speed Record attempt by Donald Campbell of Great Britain on a long flat salt bed in remote South Australia, captures all the drama, tension and danger implicit in shooting for a Speed Record. Bluebird Proteus CN7 was to set that new world record driven by a man who felt it his destiny. The son of a famous world record breaking father, Sir Malcolm, Donald endured an almost lifelong struggle to try and break the World Land Speed Record. His car, the Bluebird Proteus CN7 in this wonderful image, was an even bigger star. Powered by a Rolls Royce Proteus jet aircraft engine, in Australia on 17th July 1964, Campbell took Bluebird to a 403.1 mph world land speed record.

The long low nose, and tall tailfin, were the key visual characteristics of this advanced design. Bluebird CN7 appeared at a time when others, notably in the USA, were experimenting with jet powered cars with no drive train and sometimes not even 4 wheels, all of which disqualified them from FIA World Land Speed Record recognition. Donald Campbell and his team knew that this version of Bluebird might be the last hurrah for the ‘proper cars’ of the drive train, wheel driven rather than pure thrust, era.

Following a very long build and development programme, and then many difficult mechanical problems, the first attempt ended with a 350mph crash at Bonneville salt flats in Utah in September 1960 which virtually wrote off the £1million car and put an end to Campbell’s immediate attempts. But with a rebuilt and revised Bluebird, and fresh funding, his 90 man crew and all the equipment set out for a new private site at Lake Eyre in South Australia early in 1962. What had been previously for decades a dry useful surface for record-setting suddenly and disastrously, was flooded. After many further hitches, it was not until April 1964 that conditions, the car and the funding were finally all back together to set up the car for a new attempt – Donald Campbell, his vast team and all his supporters knew this could be the last chance for Bluebird. The test run in this image showed Campbell that the new world record was close - and within days, at 403.10 mph, they had it. The tension and determination which lies behind this image is almost palpable.

Original image source copyright ©2022 The National Motor Museum Trust, Beaulieu, England