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Saturday 3rd March
From The Archives

John Godfrey Parry Thomas (April 6th 1885 – March 3rd 1927)

Parry Thomas, Old Oswestrian, engineer and motor-racing driver died 80 years ago today whilst making an attempt to regain the world land speed record.

Parry Thomas was born in Wrexham, Denbighshire, the second son of the curate of Rhosddu.  The family moved to nearby Oswestry when he was five years old and he was educated at Oswestry School where he is said to have raffled his sixpence-a-week pocket money at a penny a chance to as many takers as he could find.

Parry Thomas went on to study engineering at The City and Guilds College in London, becoming chief engineer at Leyland Motors, a company whose main products were commercial vehicles. However, in 1917, he and his assistant, Reid Railton, started to design the Leyland Eight luxury motor car which was intended to compete with Rolls-Royce.  Aiming to make a perfect vehicle, the Leyland Eight was both magnificent and extremely expensive; in 1921 the car was available to the public at a cost of £2,700 for a five seater tourer.  Altogether, 14 cars were made, including 2 for the Maharajah of Patiala and one for Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary leader.  The cars were all fitted with different bodies and it was a Leyland Eight that Parry Thomas used in his early competitions in 1922.  By the following year, Parry Thomas had given up his career with Leyland to become a professional motor-racing driver.  The split was friendly and Parry Thomas was given several chassis and a quantity of spares.

Setting up in a bungalow and garages within the confines of the Brooklands race track, Parry Thomas started to develop a racing car and in 1923 achieved 8 first, 4 second and a third place.  By 1924 the car had become the Leyland-Thomas No 1 and sported streamlined bodywork.  During that year, Thomas used the car to raise the Brooklands lap record many times, finally setting 128.36 mph only to improve it again in 1925 to 129.63 mph.

Parry Thomas' most famous racing car was 'Babs'.  'Babs' had originally been built as the Higham Special for Count Louis Zborowski and was originally nicknamed 'Chitty 4'.  'Chitty Bang Bang' was the informal name of a number of celebrated English racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski and his engineer Clive Gallop in the 1920s.  The cars had inspired the book (and then film and stage musical) 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car' written by James Bond author, Ian Fleming, for his son.  The Chittys were built and stored at Higham Park, Zborowski's country house in Kent. The cars were so loud that Canterbury reportedly passed a by-law prohibiting them from entering within the city walls.

'Chitty 4' was Louis Zborowski's largest car yet.  Using a 450 hp V12 Liberty aero engine of 27 litres capacity, with a gearbox and chain-drive from a pre-war Blitzen Benz, it was the largest capacity racing car ever to run at Brooklands.  Still not fully developed by the time of Zborowski's death at the Italian Grand Prix in November 1924, it was purchased from his estate by Parry Thomas for the sum of £125.  Parry Thomas rechristened the car 'Babs' and rebuilt it with four Zenith carburettors and his own design of pistons.

On 27th April 1926, 'Babs' proved herself to be the fastest car in the world when, on Pendine Sands, Wales, Parry Thomas raised the world land speed record to 169.298 mph; the following day, he improved this to 171.019 mph.  The old record had fallen by a margin of about 20 mph!  The organisation of the day - transport, track marking and fuel - was entirely in the hands of Shell-Mex.

During February the following year, Malcolm Campbell, driving 'Bluebird', returned to Pendine and set a new record of 174.883 mph.

The next month, despite having flu, Parry Thomas took 'Babs' back to Pendine to make an attempt to regain the record.  March 3rd 1927 saw Parry Thomas make his first run out and back; fast but not fast enough.  During the second run, 'Babs' spun round and overturned at high speed; Parry Thomas was killed instantly.

John Godfrey Parry Thomas was laid to rest at Byfleet Church, Surrey.  His beloved 'Babs' was buried in the sands at Pendine until 1969 when Owen Wyn Owen exhumed 'Babs' and rebuilt and restored her.  'Babs' is now on display during the summer months at the Museum of Speed, Pendine.