The life and death of J. G. Parry Thomas
I present to you the tragic story of a young man whose employers' actions led him to an addiction that cost him his employment and, ultimately, his life.

The young man's name was John Godfrey Parry Thomas who, by the end of the First World War, became Chief Engineer of English bus and lorry manufacturer Leyland. He had also served on several government advisory boards during the war.

In 1917, Parry Thomas and his assistant Reid Railton were given the task of designing a cost-no-object luxury car. Thomas, fully aware of the development of the internal combustion engine during the war, set to work to create an engineering masterpiece.

In 1920 the Leyland Eight was introduced at the International Motor Exhibition in Olympia, London. It was a massive sensation, dubbed the "Lion of Olympia". Unlike with the Rover Eight, the number did not refer to RAC taxable horsepower, but to the number of cylinders in the car's engine. The Leyland Eight had a 7.0 L straight-eight engine with an overhead camshaft and hemispheric heads. It had power brakes boosted by engine vacuum and an automatic chassis lubrication system powered by the movement of the rear suspension. As such, it was one of the most advanced automobiles of its day, with specifications comparable to the Duesenberg Model A and exceeding those of the Hispano-Suiza H6B. (The less said about the Rolls-Royce 40/50, which had earned the title "The World's Best Car" long before the war, the better.)

Cars capable of high speeds need to be tested at high speeds, and Parry Thomas tested the Eight at Brooklands. Brooklands was England's speed headquarters before the Second World War. Automobile manufacturers and daredevils alike had garages there to develop fast cars for fun, profit, and experience. Bus and lorry manufacturers and engineers have no need for Brooklands, so Parry Thomas had been safe from the speed bug while his employers stayed in that line. But the Eight was capable of one hundred miles per hour, and the only safe place in England to test cars at that speed was Brooklands.

While at Brooklands, testing the Eight, J. G. Parry Thomas became a speed demon.

After developing the Eight at Brooklands, Parry Thomas demonstrated it there at the Easter Monday Meeting in 1922. His car was a short wheelbase Eight stripped to bare essentials and was as sensational there as the Eight had been at Olympia in 1920.

In 1922, Leyland decided to end their experiment in luxury car manufacture. They had built about eighteen chassis, and some of these had not sold. While Leyland had no further need of Brooklands, Parry Thomas was quite well established there and, when given the choice between remaining Leyland's Chief Engineer and remaining at Brooklands, he chose to remain at Brooklands. His severance from Leyland included several complete Eight chassis and all the spares he needed. For the rest of his life he lived in a bungalow near his garage inside the Brooklands track.

Living on income from his patents and from servicing cars at Brooklands, Parry Thomas continued to race his Leyland Eight there, developing it beyond anything Leyland had made available to the public.

Eventually, however, his need for speed led him to the ultimate level, the Land Speed Record.

In 1924, older and wealthier speed demon Count Louis Zborowski died in an accident at Monza. His estate included a Higham special with a twenty-seven litre Liberty V-12 engine. Parry Thomas bought this special from Zborowski's estate and called it "Babs". Neither the chassis nor the engine was the latest and greatest, but Parry Thomas figured he had the skill, experience, and innovation to make Babs run with the best of the best.

After much development at Brooklands, Parry Thomas took Babs to the Pendine Sands in his native Wales in October 1925, where they made no runs because the weather was bad. In March 1926 Henry Segrave set a record of 152.30 mph (245.1 km/h) over the flying kilometer at Pendine in his Sunbeam-powered special.

The next month, Parry Thomas and Babs returned to Pendine with financial assistance from sponsor Shell. On 27 April 1926, Parry Thomas piloted Babs to a new flying kilometer record of 169.29 mph (272.45 km/h) and a new flying mile record of 168.07 mph (270.48 km/h), breaking Malcolm Campbell's flying mile record of 1925.

Parry Thomas's records of 27 April 1926 lasted one day; he broke them the next. His new flying kilometer record was 171.01 mph (275.21 km/h) while his new flying mile record was 170.62 mph (274.59 km/h).

While 1926's attempt brought Parry Thomas glory, his attempt to recapture the record from Malcolm Campbell at Pendine in March 1927 brought him to his doom. Babs used chain drive to its rear wheels, and the right side chain let go and flew forward, mangling Parry Thomas as he leaned to the right of the car to see where he was going. Parry Thomas was killed instantly.

Sources:
http://www.parry-thomas.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record