WORLD WATER SPEED RECORD CHALLENGE

Another project which Nelson based Precision Engineering Company PDS has worked extensively is yet another potential World Beater. Working with the late Ken Norris (the man who designed Donald Campbells’ Bluebird car and boat both of which held their respective World Speed Records) PDS have begun building a boat called Quicksilver to attempt the record on Lake Coniston in the millennium year.

The driver of the jet engined contender is proposed to be writer Nigel Macknight who has been researching and developing Ken Norris’s concept for about fifteen years. To achieve the motive power for the speeds required, the Quicksilver team has purchased an RAF Buccaneer twin engined jet bomber to strip out the fully functioning engines, one of which will be fitted in the boat hull. The Rolls Royce Spey engines are of a similar type to those used in the Thrust SSC (Super Sonic Car) which was another project featuring heavy PDS involvement.

“To actually meet Ken Norris and John Ackroyd, the designers of the boat was a wonderful nostalgic experience” says John Getty the PDS Chairman, and long-time fan. “But to work closely with them as partners in such an exciting venture was awesome”. John Ackroyd was also the designer of the Thrust 2 car which Richard Noble drove to a World Land Speed record in the early eighties. “These men are renowned as two of the best designers in the world with a wealth of experience at the ‘sharp end’ of record breaking.

It is a great honour to be regarded as equal to the challenge alongside them”.We were really pleased the day when the space frame of the boat rolled out of our works in Nelson and hopefully into History. Checkout the Quicksilver website; www.quicksilver-wsr.com

With the Quicksilver record boat and now a British Steam Car in the making, 2009 promises to be a cracking year for all the lads in Nelson as they aim for even greater success at the highest levels of high technology engineering.