Stirling Moss – Bonneville

I went to the Salt Flats at Bonneville in Utah for the first time in 1957. John Thornley from MG invited me to come and make an attempt on the International Class F record. MG had been there in 1954 when one of the MGA prototypes had been fitted with a Goldie Gardner streamlined body, and had set records in several categories. This car, EX.179, had managed 120.74 mph for 12 hours and reached 153.69 mph for 10 miles.

Goldie Gardner had broken many records both before and after the war, and I had read a great deal about him as I was growing up. MG was sending a new car, the EX.181, which was to contest records in the 1101 cc to 1500 cc class, and I was fascinated, as I had never done anything like this before. The target was to reach 240 mph, so a new streamlined machine with a mid-engine and superb teardrop shape was built to try for a new record. The engine was a 1.5-liter with twin overhead cams based on the BMC-B unit, and a Shorrock supercharger. The engine managed to produce 290 bhp, which in those days, was amazing, and benefited from 32 psi of boost. It had a very narrow rear track and was only a foot wider at the front, with a wheelbase of just eight feet. The body had a lovely shape, but I am not so sure how sophisticated it was aerodynamically. It didn’t seem to have much drag at all, but I don’t know whether it had lift or down-force. Those were the days when we knew relatively little about aerodynamics.