Captain J. S. Irving, who designed the 1,000 horsepower
Sunbeam, was also responsible for Segrave's final
mount, the Irving Special or Golden Arrow, one of
the prettiest record breakers made.
A new idea which
was tried and worked was a telescopic sight so that
the driver could aim the car without taking his eyes
off the oil-slick ahead.
Irving had left Sunbeam by
the time he was asked to design the car, and this
time decided to use a Napier Lion aero engine of
the 900 horse-power Schneider Trophy type as used
by Malcolm Campbell at one stage of Bluebird's development.
This engine, as used in the Supermarine S.5, ran
on a 10-1 compression ratio, and British Petroleum
(BP) supplied a special alcohol fuel, used at the
rate of three miles to the gallon.
Segrave sat only
nine inches from the ground inside the aluminum shell,
in a car 27 ft 8 in long, only 3 ft 9 in high, and
weighing 3 tons 12 cwt.
This car was believed at the
time to have been capable of much higher speeds than
it actually achieved, but a fatal accident to the American
driver Lee Bible made Segrave give up the idea of further
runs before he ever had Golden Arrow fully extended.
He only took the engine to 3,250 rpm. Although this
was enough to achieve an incredible 231.44 mph.
