Presented in bright, crisp color, here is a celebrated moment in British motor history: Stirling Moss runs 245 mph in the MG EX181 streamliner at Bonneville in 1957, breaking a long list of international and American speed records. This is beautiful footage, watch.
Produced by British Pathe News, this 1957 newsreel short packs a lot of material into three minutes. MG’s EX181 streamliner, a bullet-shaped racer specially built for straight-line speed attempts, is shown in the wind tunnel in model form, under construction at the MG shops in Abington, and finally on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. There, in August of 1957, powered by a supercharged 1500cc MG twincam engine and with British racing hero Stirling Moss at the controls, EX181 ran a two-way average of 245.11 mph, taking home a series of international speed records.
One historical note: Though he is referred to but not named in the film, the American driver who drove EX181 on its shakedown runs at Bonneville was none other than Phil Hill, the USA’s own Formula 1 champion in 1961. While the film is noteworthy on a number of counts, what grabbed us was the beautiful condition of the color footage: crisp, clear, and bright. Please enjoy this proud moment in British motor racing history.
Where’s the video.
At the bottom of the text, just above. Works fine here. You might try emptying your browser cache.
Stirling in his swim trunks seemed a bit awkward.
What model of Chevy wagon was towing the car at Bonneville? It had the BelAir side spear but not the anodized center piece. I’ve seen cars like that before but assumed that the person restoring the car just hadn’t acquired all the pieces yet. This being 1957, that’s probably not the case. Was the center piece an extra-cost option? The Two-Ten and One-Fifty wagons have only the one downward spear or a horizontal one like the ’56.
Among ’57 Chevy people, that big triangle of anodized aluminum on the Bel Air is called a billboard. A 210 (officially, “Two-Ten” in 1957) has Bel Air-style side trim but without the billboard, only paint inside the triangle. There were 2D and 4D pillarless hardtops in the 210 line, by the way. (See them in our ’57 Daytona videos.) The 4D 6P 210 wagon was called a Townsman while the 210 4D 9P wagon was called a Beauville.
This 1957 brochure disagrees with your description of the trim, but it could be an early pre-production item. Unlike some other companies, GM generally didn’t include a date or identifying code on their brochures.
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/57chvy/57chvy.html
I know you’re knowledgeable on these matters which is why I asked. I’ve used your spotter’s guides on several occasions. I can trust that you are correct.
Yes, the brochure art is wrong. The production cars are as pictured in this video and in this item. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1957-chevrolet-two-ten.htm
I think 245 mph with an un-supercharged 1500 cc motor would be pretty good even today, but to do so 58 years ago is truly amazing.
I tried to read SCTA’s rulebook to try to figure out what class of Streamliner this car would fall into today and what the current record is, but I got lost in all of the classes, sub-classes, categories etc. Maybe someone else here can answer that question.
I agree, a very fast [and pretty] little car. And amazing for the time.
Though for some reason it has one brown wheel on it! Those high performance racing Austin wheels!