Parry Thomas - The First Driver to be Killed in Pursuit of t

John Godfrey Parry Thomas was by any standards an extraordinary man, in both life and in his tragic death. From a conventional upbringing in Rhosddu, Wales, having been born in April 1884, he became a prominent figure in the world of high-speed motor car racing and design. In time, Thomas became the chief engineer at Leyland Motors. But Thomas was more interested in swifter vehicles and in 1920, along with his assistant Reid Railton, he designed the Leyland Eight, a luxury car which bristled with novel features, such as torsion springs, anti-roll bars and vacuum-assisted brakes. It was the experience of driving this car around the race track at Brooklands that persuaded Thomas to give up his career with Leyland to become a fulltime motor-racing driver and engineer. Thomas continued to develop ever-faster cars and eventually he turned his attention to the land speed record. This is the story the life, and death of the first person to die in the pursuit of the land speed record.