1. Ernest Arthur Douglas Eldridge was a British racing driver who broke the world land speed record in 1924.
20 Facts About Ernest Eldridge
1. 2.
Ernest Eldridge's was the last land speed record set on an open road.
3.
Ernest Eldridge joined the British Red Cross Society and Order of St John of Jerusalem, possibly as an ambulance driver.
4.
Ernest Eldridge married Majorie M Tooth in 1915 at Brentford in Middlesex; she died before the Second World War.
5.
Ernest Eldridge learned to fly in a Sopwith Grasshopper at Brooklands and finally received his pilot's licence on 21 August 1923 at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware.
6.
In 1922 Ernest Eldridge startled the Brooklands crowd by appearing with a 240 horsepower Maybach aero engine in his 1907 Isotta Fraschini chassis, which had been stretched to accommodate the giant power plant.
7.
Ernest Eldridge sold it to another British racing driver, L C G M Le Champion.
8.
Ernest Eldridge then turned to a 10-litre Fiat, which he drove with some success.
9.
AD Ernest Eldridge set up new figures for the half-mile world's record by covering the distance in 23.17secs.
10.
Ernest Eldridge entered two cars in the 1926 Indy 500, no doubt tempted by the prize money.
11.
Ernest Eldridge drove one car with Douglas Hawkes in the other.
12.
Whilst attempting speed records over the Christmas Holidays the front axle disintegrated, the car somersaulted, and Ernest Eldridge was left with serious head injuries and the loss of an eye.
13.
When it was ready for testing at Montlhery, with Eyston away racing, Ernest Eldridge took the wheel.
14.
Ernest Eldridge is by no means slim, and here he was sitting in a little bucket seat on the bare chassis, the wind ballooning his trousers and coat.
15.
Ernest Eldridge played an important part in the development of the pioneering EX120.
16.
Ernest Eldridge designed a counterbalanced crankshaft as part of the tuning work on the engine, before EX120's first visit to Montlhery in December 1930.
17.
Kimber agreed, and Ernest Eldridge supervised the work as the engine was fitted with one of Eyston's Powerplus superchargers.
18.
Ernest Eldridge would raise or lower it in accordance with the lap speed I was putting up.
19.
Eyston had been successful attacking records over longer distances with Hotchkiss and Panhard machinery, as well as the Rolls-Royce-engined, Speed of the Wind record breaker, that Ernest Eldridge helped design and went to Bonneville to manage the record attempt.
20.
Ernest Eldridge spent the family fortune on gambling, racing and flying.