Bluebird spirit soars again

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

One of the huge steel wheels which carried British daredevil Donald Campbell and his gas-turbine vehicle Bluebird to a world land speed record of 645km/h 40 years ago is being auctioned next week in Melbourne.

The 1.32m-tall wheel and its purpose-built Dunlop tyre was one of 12 used on Bluebird during Campbell's rain-delayed record attempt in 1963 and 1964 on South Australia's Lake Eyre saltbed. He set the speed on July 17, 1964.

Australian sports car dealer Jeff Dutton bought the wheel at auction in London in 1991 and later acquired a set of rare, black-and-white framed photographs documenting the record attempt and life at remote Muloorina Station, where Campbell and his team made their base while waiting for unseasonable rains to clear. The land speed record captivated Australia and New Zealand.

The deeply superstitious Campbell had crashed at 583km/h on his previous attempt in the United States two years earlier.

He interpreted the crash as an omen that the record should be set on Commonwealth territory and arrived in Australia with the rebuilt 9.1-m long, 4354kg Bluebird sporting a large stabiliser fin.

Campbell also believed in life after death and claimed to have seen the spirit of his late father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, in Bluebird's cockpit shortly before breaking the record at Lake Eyre.

Campbell's record was short-lived. In 1965, jet and rocket propelled cars were allowed to compete and their speeds soon exceeded 600mph (972km/h). Bluebird was powered by a 4500hp gas-turbine engine, which drove all four wheels.

Campbell died less than three years later, in January 1967, while trying to break his own water speed record.

His Bluebird hydroplane crashed at high speed on Coniston Water in England's Lake District and his body was recovered and buried only three years ago.

The Bluebird wheel and its accompanying photographs are expected to fetch upwards of $15,000 at the Shannons' auction.

Other unusual items include a 2.5m Michelin man suit; a rare 1964 Alfa Romeo TZ1 aluminium racing bonnet; a 1920's Hispano Sardine cycle car; and a 1930's Wurlitzer 800 juke box.