John Cobbs 'Railton Special' by Str4wB34ry

Photography • Transportation • posted on Jun 26, 2009

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Description

One of my heros... Englishman John Cobb's Railton-Mobil Special, a piston engined, wheel driven vehicle broke the Land Speed Record on August 23, 1939 at a speed of 350.20 m.p.h. Without this being beaten Cobb then raised the record to 394.19 m.p.h. in 1947. The record remained unbeaten until 1963 when it was narrowly surpassed by Craig Breedlove in the jet powered Spirit of America. Power was 1,250 hp @ 3,600 rpm per engine - the car weighed 3 tons. The vehicle is now housed at the Birmingham Science Museum 'Think Tank'.

Comments (6)

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kgb224

10:14AM | Fri, 26 June 2009

Excellent capture.

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skiwillgee

10:39AM | Fri, 26 June 2009

Wow, I would not have wish to driven it.

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Digitaleagle

11:10PM | Fri, 26 June 2009

Awesome capture very interesting work!!!

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bmac62

12:18AM | Sat, 27 June 2009

I recall seeing pictures of this in Hot Rod magazines of my youth. Great shot.

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debbielove

12:18PM | Mon, 29 June 2009

Yep! I recall seeing pictures of this one! Great to see its still around and not mushed into scrap! As they tend to..... Brilliant and interesting! More! Rob.

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danapommet

10:34AM | Tue, 30 June 2009

I remember reading about this when Breedlove set his record. Never saw Cobb's Railton-Mobil Special. A piece of history. Thanks for sharing this with us. Dana