Grandson of Malcolm Campbell plans electric speed record bid

Don Wales, 50, and his Bluebird team will try this weekend to break the 137mph barrier, which Wales set in 2000.

Wales is hoping to reach a speed in excess of 150mph when he races at Pendine Sands, in Carmarthenshire, South Wales.

He comes from an illustrious line of speedsters, with his grandfather and uncle Donald Campbell holding world speed records on both land and water.

But Wales now faces a challenge from his own teenage son Joe, who will also be racing the battery-powered vehicle. The 19-year-old will become the fourth generation of the Campbell family to pursue record-breaking when he drives Bluebird Electric in attempts on the quarter-mile and 500-metre UK speed records.

The South Wales location has seen plenty of attempts on UK records in the past, including Sir Malcolm in 1924 when he set a then-fastest speed in a combustion engine of 146mph.

The Bluebird team is hoping to use this weekend’s trials to test the technology behind the super-fast car and to build a new electric vehicle for an a bid at the world speed record in two years’ time. They want to hit 500mph and pass the 307mph record set by the Buckeye Bullet 2.5 team last year.

This would also beat the wheel-driven record, which stands from 2001 at 458mph.

Don Wales said: “Ten years ago we set a UK record of 137mph at Pendine Sands and we are going back there this weekend to hopefully increase that speed to somewhere around 150mph or 160mph. This really is the start of a two or three-year campaign with a target of 500mph.”

Mr Wales was speaking at BAE Systems’ airfield at Filton, Bristol, as the team carried out final checks ahead of this weekend.