Hello everyone,
An occasional reader/lurker on the forum, I am currently trying to order the information I have on the "Triplex Special" (or "Spirit of Elkdom") as driven by Ray Keech in 1928 and Lee Bible in 1929.
My biggest problem is to try and ascertain what exactly happened with the reverse gear that the car initially did not have (noclutch, no differential and no reverse gear) for which it was barred from officially going for the LSR on 15th February 1928.
The car was allowed to tun to prove it was able to develop speeds that could possibly better the then existing speed record as set by Malcolm Campbell earlier in 1928. When the car proved it could do that, J.M. White was given time to install a reverse gear and so get approval.
A lot of photographs show the vehicle with 6 wheels on 3 axles with the middle set of wheels actually being slaves that butted up against the rearmost wheels enabling the car to crawl backwards slowly to qualify. This seems to have satisfied the A.A.A. at the time, but when I look at a Richard LeSesne picture of the Triplex during the record attempt, there are only 4 wheels on 2 axles on the car!
At that point the nose is also sporting a broad horizontal white stripe which was not there during the February or March 1928 and 1929 runs.
There is one newspaper article that claims that the car was disqualified as it had 6 wheels instead of 4, but that is a statement I have only seen in the one article!
I have tried to find archives of the motor press of the time (The Motor, Automobile, The Autocar etc...) but have been unable to find much online.
Does anybody have some more information and/or could point me to where I might be able to find more?
Any help will be very much appreciated!
Arie