powerful American model – with a canvas

fairing extension on the back providing a

protective pocket. Marquet made his record

attempt in California in 1937 and it was also

in California that yet another French cyclist,

Alfred Letourner, took the record to over 100

mph. That was in 1941, while his home country

was languishing under the occupation of the

Nazis, Letourner proudly flying the flag for

France on an American freeway just outside

Bakersfield. He rode behind a customised

midget racing car that had a shield-style

windbreak built onto the back. Three years

previously Letourner had done over 91 mph

behind a motorbike that was also equipped

with a shield.

Once the 100 mph hurdle had been passed,

the next landmark was 200 km/h (124.2 mph).

The French seemed determined to keep on

breaking the record, and it was Jose Meiffret’s

turn in 1962. Meiffret had broken Letourner’s

record in 1951 when he rode behind a Talbot on

a flat stretch of road near Toulouse, reaching

over 109 mph (175 km/h), and the following

year he staged another record attempt at the

Montlhery circuit where Vanderstuyft had

triumphed in 1928. The circuit had been new

in 1928, but by 1952 the surface was far from

perfect and Meiffret came a cropper when his

front wheel fell apart. He suffered five separate

fractures to his skull and was not expected to

live. But you can’t keep a good man down and

in 1962, now 48 years old, Meiffret was pushing

his pedals behind a Mercedes 300SL sports car

on a German autobahn outside Freiberg. The

Mercedes had a flat-backed, tent-like structure

providing a windbreak for Meiffret, who made

it to over 127 mph (204 km/h).

Bonneville Salt Flats, where world speed
records have been set in everything from jet-
powered cars to motorised bar stools, was

Top:

‘Mile-a-Minute

Murphy’ (left) could
do almost 100 mph
on static rollers.

Bottom: Huge crowds

turned out for motor

pacing events like this

one at Herne Hill in

London in the 1940s.

DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF MOTOR PACING    21