New Rolls Royce marks water speed records

A POWERFUL land vehicle which pays homage to speed on water has been unveiled by Rolls-Royce.

The car company showed off its limited-edition Waterspeed Phantom Drophead Coupe on the site of the original Bluebird Motor Company forever associated with the speed record-holding Campbell family.

The site is now the Bluebird restaurant on the King's Road in west London, with the Bluebird company having funded Sir Malcolm Campbell's waterspeed record attempts.

After being shown in London, the new coupe heads for Lake Como in Italy to be shown in public at the Concorso D'Eleganza at Villa D'Este.

It was on the adjacent Lake Maggiore on September 1, 1937 that Sir Malcolm set a new record of 126.3mph in Bluebird K3 powered by a Rolls-Royce engine.

The new coupe comes in a specially-developed Maggiore Blue colour and features a Bluebird motif.

"This very special motor car serves to pay a perfect homage to my grandfather's remarkable acts of British daring and endeavour," said Sir Malcolm's grandson Donald Wales.

He went on: "The extraordinary attention to detail and commitment to engineering excellence so evident in these motor cars perfectly echoes the lengths my grandfather and his colleagues went to in their pursuit of the waterspeed records."

By Peter Woodman, Press Association