22 replies to this topic

[f1steveuk]

Turning out a few archive boxes today, and I was confronted with a photograph of Barry Bowles and his car, The Blonde Bombshell, spinning to destruction on Pendine, which triggered my memory to recall the film footage of this rather low key LSR attempt.

So what happened to Barry,and his car?

[Cirrus]

Barry Bowles - now, there's a name I'd forgotten. He seemed to get a lot of publicity at the time, as the plucky British amateur taking on the world. Didn't BBC's Nationwide programme do a series of features about him?

Sadly his efforts were destined to be considered in the same light as those of another heroic failure - Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. The world is so much duller now.

Surely people with their unique blend of enthusiasm and persistence can't be extinct?...

[Collombin]

Originally posted by Cirrus
Sadly his efforts were destined to be considered in the same light as those of another heroic failure - Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. The world is so much duller now.

Surely people with their unique blend of enthusiasm and persistence can't be extinct?...

Saw Eddie barely a few days ago, he is fine, and doesn't actually look much different now to how he used to, apart from the fact that he wasn't falling vertically at great velocity.

He was regulated out of Olympic competition, of course.

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by f1steveuk
Turning out a few archive boxes today, and I was confronted with a photograph of Barry Bowles and his car, The Blonde Bombshell, spinning to destruction on Pendine, which triggered my memory to recall the film footage of this rather low key LSR attempt.

So what happened to Barry,and his car?

There were two cars built. The one famously destroyed at Pendine (a clip of which used to feature in the opening titles for NATIONWIDE every evening on BBC1) and a rather more attractive replacement, broadly similar in appearance but with enclosed cockpit and a wide track.....and no one seems to have a clue where either of them - or Barry went!

Stories of unpaid suppliers bills (especially rocket fuel) and such have done the rounds as have the terms 'in hiding' and 'gone abroad' but that's all speculative hear-say and only adds to the fascination surrounding this brave and ultimately doomed endeavor.

I seem to recall the crash was allegedly due to lumps of sticky, soft sand building up in the wheel rims and eventually throwing the wheels and thus the car, out of balence at 200mph + . Based on what has happened during recent attempts at Pendine with Bluebird Electric I would venutre that it was more likley just a soft patch in the sand that put the car into it's spectacular gyrations....



Pendine's surface is far from uniform at the best of times.

Barry certainly had a way of stirring up media interest. NATIONWIDE seemed to follow his progress for quite some time prior to the 1978 crash , as they later did with the equally unsuccessful attempt on the water speed record by Tony Fahey with MISS ALTON TOWERS.

Does anyone know what happened to either of the 'Bombshell's ? I almost don't want to know as a mystery like this is always more interesting that it's resolution (think - Loch Ness Monster)...

[Pullman99]

There were two cars built. Barry certainly had a way of stirring up media interest. NATIONWIDE seemed to follow his progress for quite some time prior to the 1978 crash , as they later did with the equally unsuccessful attempt on the water speed record by Tony Fahey with MISS ALTON TOWERS.

Does anyone know what happened to either of the 'Bombshell's ? I almost don't want to know as a mystery like this is always more interesting that it's resolution (think - Loch Ness Monster)...

Hi Simon,

I came across this thread whilst generally browsing for record breakers. I believe that the rebuilt - or 2nd car - was exhibited somewhere about 1979 at a specialist motor show (Alexandra Palace perhaps?). Briefly met at Motorfair in 1981 one of the team helpers who told me that there was still interest in running it again at that time. I think one of my fellow bus enthusiasts had some contact with Barry Bowles a few years ago so I'll ask when I next have an opportunity. I know that Richard Noble always had a fairly dim view of Nationwide's coverage as at the time Mr Bowles was claiming that Blonde Bombshell was capable of setting an outright LSR Richard was just starting out to seek sponsorship for the construction of Thrust 2. I think that the pervading view was that Blonde Bombshell - due to the crash on TV - was negatively influencing Richard's efforts and probably led to some confusion - in the public mind at least - of the two cars for several years.

Mentioning Tony Fahey, I did try to make contact with him (through his Manchester based haulage firm) a few years ago as I wanted to know what became of the jet boat. He never returned any of my calls or letters so I did not pursue this enquiry. He had, some years before, also acquired the final Jaguar XK engined "Miss Windermere V" from the estate of the late Norman Buckley. Mr Buckley had gained records in this boat himself but it was not quite so well known as the earlier Miss Windermeres III and IV. Miss Windermere IV had been on exhibition in the Windermere Steamboat Museum (currently closed for redevelopment). Anyone know anything more about these two craft?

Record breaking to the top of the Forum again (however briefly)!

Edited by Pullman99, 13 January 2011 - 05:54.

[RCH]

Barry Bowles, now there's a name I had forgotten! He turned up at the company I used to work for looking to buy flexible hoses and tube fittings. Spent a very interesting lunchtime discussing land speed record attempts. A very persuasive man. The car he was building at the time was for testing/publicity purposes and perhaps taking the UK record at Pendine. He had a touching faith ISTR in the suitability of Pendine for this. I'm not sure whether a second car ever existed in anything but his imagination.

I tried to persuade my boss to provide a little sponsorship or at least a substantial discount but ended up sponsoring him myself to the tune of about a tenner because he couldn't quite come up with the full amount!

I think at the time his project was given as much credence as Richard Noble's. Barry believed that by running his first car whenever he could he could come up with the money to build the second car which would be the real LSR contender. He was something of a showman and I'm sure he thought that by showing the public what it was all about he could pull support away from Noble whose only record attempts would be the full LSR.

I think he was eventually overwhelmed by unpaid debts.

[f1steveuk]

Was the rebuilt "Bombshell" the Pink Panther? I heard the car still existed, but much like Silver Bullet and Whitehawk, they never do appear in the mythical barn they are supposed to be in!

Tony Fahey's daughter mentioned that K8 British Pursuit/Miss Alton Towers does indeed reside in a building where Tony keeps some old trucks, but much like Ian, requests for further info' go unanswered.

[simonlewisbooks]

I missed this thread making it's reappearance a few days ago. It would be interesting to know of Barry Bowles is indeed still around. He did seem to have vanished from the face of the earth after his 'fifteen minutes of fame' in 1978 and some suggestions , hopefully just joking, thought "concrete wellies" might have been involved....

Pink Panther was contemporary with BB, 1977-78, so I always assumed they must be different chassis. The former's ancient Goblin engine always looked rather unsuitable for the installation but hat's off to anyone who turns a dream into moving metal! Was the PP's chassis left to rust at Santa Pod for some years or was than another jet-car of the era?

There were some photos in FAST FACTS some years back that showed Pink Panther being run at Pendine . I don't recall any further details of that exploit but it must have been at a roughly similar date to Bowles' appearance there. Does anyone know any more about this little known venture?

As to the second(rebuilt?) BLONDE BOMBSHELL, it had a considerable visual similarity to OXYGEN, the 'rail' style rocket car that the late Sammy Miller was running in the mid 1980s. I can only recall seeing one or two photos but it looked much more the business than it's predecessor.

Whilst on that subject - here's OXYGEN on You tube


and Miller's more familiar VANISHING POINT at Zandvoort.

[f1steveuk]

Your so right Simon the Goblin (or Ghost or any radial flow jet) just don't look right for any record breaker, bit to wide in the girth (much like me !)

There's a few pictures of the Bombshell in Google, but Barry and his car were/are well hidden, though I read that there is a possibility that unpaid bills may have seen the Bombshells successor confiscated......................

I sent another message to Mr Fahey's daughter, British Pursuit/Alton Towers K8, really should be seen again

[simonlewisbooks]

Your so right Simon the Goblin (or Ghost or any radial flow jet) just don't look right for any record breaker, bit to wide in the girth (much like me !)

There's a few pictures of the Bombshell in Google, but Barry and his car were/are well hidden, though I read that there is a possibility that unpaid bills may have seen the Bombshells successor confiscated......................

I sent another message to Mr Fahey's daughter, British Pursuit/Alton Towers K8, really should be seen again

The engines from K8 were apparently sold not too many years ago. I recall talking about this to Geoff Holme at a Speed Record Club meet who apparently brokered the deal. He seemed to think the hull may have originally been built as a mock up but was upgraded due to lack of funds. The resulting steel bracing added so much weight the boat would no longer plane.

[f1steveuk]

The engines from K8 were apparently sold not too many years ago. I recall talking about this to Geoff Holme at a Speed Record Club meet who apparently brokered the deal. He seemed to think the hull may have originally been built as a mock up but was upgraded due to lack of funds. The resulting steel bracing added so much weight the boat would no longer plane.

That's the story I was always told about K8. Full size mock up, later beefed up (I was told with scaffolding tubes!) and then an inabilty to raise onto the plane. The Viper was mounted a tad high as well, and it was a reverse three pointer, which don't have a good record.

Geoff Holme? Ex policeman, Manchester? I know the name!!

[simonlewisbooks]

That's the story I was always told about K8. Full size mock up, later beefed up (I was told with scaffolding tubes!) and then an inabilty to raise onto the plane. The Viper was mounted a tad high as well, and it was a reverse three pointer, which don't have a good record.

Geoff Holme? Ex policeman, Manchester? I know the name!!

Manchester accent as far as I could tell. A familiar face at SRC Coniston events for a number of years. He was also at the lakeside on Jan 4 1967 I think.

[webbe.sc]

I used to live in South Wales.
I went down on the Saturday to watch the record attempt, but he had a blockage feeding the rocket motor, so the attempt was postponed until the next day.

We were allowed onto the beach, and I watched the car burning off what fuel was left in the system, what a noise and it shot up the beach approx 10 - 15 yards.
The rocket was from a black knight missile, and the fuel used was High Test Peroxide and paraffin, highly volatile and seriously dangerous, and the technicians and Barry all wore protective suits

The next day I had to work, but after work shot down there arriving shortly after his crash, I think he equaled the British land speed record, then flipped up side down and travelling backwards, then landing the right way up pointing the right way again then hitting the sand dunes.

I kept the pictures from the newspaper, and a post card with the shape of the blond bombshell in red ink for many years, but sadly they are all lost now.

I'm surprised that there's not much info on his record attempt in Google.

Here is something about the engine

http://en.wikipedia....Knight_(rocket)

[simonlewisbooks]

I used to live in South Wales.
I went down on the Saturday to watch the record attempt, but he had a blockage feeding the rocket motor, so the attempt was postponed until the next day.

The reminds me of arriving at Pendine at dawn ready to be a course marshall for Richard Brown's rocket bike on it's first test runs....only to be met by Speed Record Club member Gwyn Jenkins. "Sorry lads" he said to me and my brother "It fell over yesterday when they tried to get it moving so he's packed up and gone home - a bit imbarissed I think"
That was as close as I have ever been to a record attempt and I never did see the bike in the flesh! Gwyn on the other hand was part of the team that ran the bike at Bonneville when it clocked over 300mph one-way only to knacker a tyre on the return(or prior to the return) run. I won a signed course marker from this endeavor in a quiz some years later. It's still in my office.

What's "Rocketman" Brown up to these days? Last I heard he had been involved with a project to create an amateur-built rocket that could be put into orbit

[webbe.sc]

More on Barry Bolds, with special thanks to PJ at ClubAristo.net
http://clubaristo.net/forums/index.php

Here are pics of the newspaper cuttings I lost many years ago

http://www.ukdrn.co....p...348&start=0

Enjoy

[f1steveuk]

Barry Bowles seems to have been a very fortunate man!

I was told recently that he may be living in Ringmer, Sussex.

[simonlewisbooks]

More on Barry Bolds, with special thanks to PJ at ClubAristo.net
http://clubaristo.net/forums/index.php

Here are pics of the newspaper cuttings I lost many years ago

http://www.ukdrn.co....p...348&start=0

Enjoy

The last contribution to the lower thread is intriguing, the poster claims to know the man who designed BB Mk 2 and still had blueprints etc in his possession - and he worked on the Ferrari F1 squad on Raikkonen's car...

One for you there Steve - Who's he on about?

Dennis Priddle usually gets name-checked for building the Mk2 so I tended to assume he'd designed it as well.

Another post says the Mk2 project ended with a suspension/strut failure during an airfield test run. This must have been 79 or 80. Does anyone know more details?

Edited by simonlewisbooks, 17 January 2011 - 20:16.

[f1steveuk]

The last contribution to the lower thread is intriguing, the poster claims to know the man who designed BB Mk 2 and still had blueprints etc in his possession - and he worked on the Ferrari F1 squad on Raikkonen's car...

One for you there Steve - Who's he on about?

Dennis Priddle usually gets name-checked for building the Mk2 so I tended to assume he'd designed it as well.

Another post says the Mk2 project ended with a suspension/strut failure during an airfield test run. This must have been 79 or 80. Does anyone know more details?

Simon, I have no idea! A British (?) designer engineer that worked on Kimi's car? I'll look!

[Paul Rochdale]

In 1999 Barry Bowles was elected Chairman of 2CVGB (Deux Chevaux Club of Great Britain) having previously been the Club Secretery. At the time he lived in Stowmarket, Suffolk.

[f1steveuk]

Sounds more likely than Ringmer!

[4zaFerrari]

Good day All (who contributed) some time ago, I hope thro' this note to answer the questions raised some years ago. I have only recently seen the thread. so apologies for the late answers. Starting with the first note: I would like to start by saying it was not a "low key" LSR attempt. The project of BB 1 was initially a "gate increase" event for Santa Pod, however internal politics from the Santa Pod owners practically push Barry into using the car for alternative uses; eg record breaking. As such the BB1 & BB2 were meant solely for generating funds to then go on to make a true LSR vehicle, rocket powered of course. Barry raised the funds through hard work for both cars.

Sadly, I would agree with the second note, about "doomed to failure" but not for the reasons the writer would ever know of. The team worked very hard to achieve the results the car and Barry attained, but little is ever written of this.

I was pleased to see a well written article for no. 4, someone who actually new or researched the facts a little before committing to "paper", well done Simon. There were two cars built, with very little transferring from BB1 across to BB2, mainly the rocket motor. It is nice to read that Simon thought the BB2 was nicer than BB1, but it is easy to improve on what has gone before. The BB2 car was quite different from BB1, in two areas mainly: the dynamics being the main and the car also had a suspended rear end, unlike BB1 which was a solid rear end. Post Pendine Sands, BB1 was scrapped a total write off, apart from the motor and maybe the steering box, can't recall now. The BB2 car was conceived in my front room some time after Pendine, learning from the errors made in BB1. Barry and myself spent many hours talking over the BB2, I then made all of the calculations and did 95% of the design engineering for BB2 after my day job.

 

I would add, if you are interested in getting more info, visit the UKDRN web site where I gave a whole shed load of answers to questions raised over the years. Search for Blonde Bombshell Rocket car and you will find around 13 pages of posts, lots of photos with annotations of mine describing the various pictures, if I say so it's quite interesting reading. I won't answer for Barry, as he has decided to remain silent on the subject as can be seen from the UKDRN site.

 

On to post no. 5. I remember doing the Motor Fair in 1977, as holders of the British LSR record, but later I am not too sure now, too much time has passed. I seem to recall BB2 being shown in Milton Keynes, with a couple of the team present, but I will stand corrected if proven wrong. It's interesting to read the comment from Richard Noble, I know Barry had some contact with Richard and in fact one of the team members knows Richard quite well to this day, but this is the first I have seen of any "concerns". We on the other hand had some reservation about Richard's project, But compliments are due, Richard did the job and we disappeared. Far too much time has passed to recall what Barry said, or did not say, but as I wrote above, both of the BB cars were meant as fund generators and not as outright LSR cars, that was to come later. I had made some preliminary sketches of the "fast" car, but never made engineering drawings. We thought. to some extent, Richard was causing us some "harm". We had a record, Richard had a disastrous trial attempt, where the "car" overturned. We were also present at the '77 Motor fair, and saw first hand a stupid display from the Thrust team with an ex RAF bod, who did know what he was talking about; I won't go into details on this as this is not the right forum for that, 'nuff said.

Onto the next posting, I like to see some people thing the two projects, ie BB and Thrust were given a similar coverage. For my part Richard had a better start due to his background, ie suit & tie, I think we were perceived as "off the track" due to wearing jeans, T shirts and having a less than respectable outlook, mmm you tell me.

Well done to RCH, saving Barry some hard earned cash, it's things like this that made the BB cars possible along with the hard work from Barry's fund raising.

I can state quite clearly, that neither BB1 or BB2 were anything to do with the Pink Panther car, completely separate projects. Had the 'Pod not caused "problems", it may have been possible to have seen the two cars "match race", but with the accidents happening in the States at the time, I somehow doubt the RAC(MS) would have given permission for this.

Again, Simon's post is good, except for the comment about BB2 and Oxygen, Sammy MIllar's car. I would write Oxygen was similar to BB2 as it predated Sammy's car by "some" years, but I am biased in this. Having lost touch with all but one of the BB team, when I first saw Oxygen, I asked the question did Sammy but the old BB 2 car and develop it, but I don't think so. Generally Sammy did his own cars, like us. I dislike the BB cars and Sammy's cars being compared. Sammy's cars were far better than either of ours, his cars were bespoke in all areas; I would have to say in using ex-gov surplus parts, for the main parts of the rocket system, the BB cars were inferior in this area, but Sammy had a budget that was much bigger, plus a home country that had companies making "racing rocket motors".

Sorry "the system" seems to have removed about half of my reply and I can't cut & paste. I'll try again another day.

Edited by 4zaFerrari, 03 January 2015 - 21:53.

[f1steveuk]

Well I for one look forward to reading more, and thank you for posting.

 

As it was me that said "low key", I should qaulify that by saying it was "low key" to me, as a LSR follower, down on the south coast, we saw and heard very little down there!

 

Having known and worked with Richard (Noble) myself, he would welcome competition, but have little problem taking all the money available for his own project, and he's aman with little time for looking back at the history, being firmly fixed on the future. I got the impression Richard used Barry's projects as an example, and to promote his own project?

 

The reason I started the thread was because I always felt Barry got a rough deal, even Nationwide seemed to put a humourous slant on things, and as a writer and researcher on lsr and record breaking in general, it has always amazed me how liitle there was to be found out about Barry and his cars, so your post is very very welcome!!

[4zaFerrari]

Good day to all and a Happy New Year,

Please find the second half of the reply that did not go across the other day, maybe there's a word count limit that I exceeded:

 

 

 

 

I have to agree with the next few posts about Radial Gas Turbines, they shouldn't be fitted into a car, but it was all they could get at the time no doubt, so don't be too hard on that account.

 

Sorry, another correction now. The guy who lived in South Wales wrote the motor used both HTP and Paraffin. In the original missile installation, it did use HTP and Kerosine. We ran the motor in a "cold configuration" due to the safety hazard of running it "hot" ie with the Kerosine. The motor ran only on HTP or hydrogen peroxide.

 

Moving onto Simon's last post. He seems to have found the UKDRN site from what he has written, back in 2011. In 2011 I got around to scanning all of my pictures of BB1 and sent them to the UK DRN website and had answered some questions raised over the years. it would wrong to state the UKDRN owner "knew" me, but we had had some e-mail exchanges and yes I still have all of the drawings I made and maybe even some "blueprints" but the drawings are more important as original documents, to me at least. The next part somehow got very confused, yes I worked at Ferrari (2005-2014), actually in the design office; as such I worked on all of the cars made and not just Raikkonen's; I really don't know how that got turned around like that. If you read the UKDRN site you will see the Dennis Priddle connection, but he made the chassis for us and also gave some info on the detail design of the frame, a real help at the time. Again good facts from Simon, the BB2 did in fact have an upright failure during testing at Bruntingthorpe in the early 80's. Sadly this was due to the fact the casting had not been heatreated and was way way down on the design strength I had worked around; a sad end to the project.

 

Apologies again for only answering now, but that's life.

I'm always happy to answer specific questions, if I can.

Regards to all.

Edited by 4zaFerrari, 05 January 2015 - 17:08.