How Britain wowEd tHE world at JaBBEkE

October 1946

Mg EX 135 159.15mph (aBOVe leFT) Lt Col AT ‘Goldie’ Gardner breaks the International Class H two-way mile record for a 750cc car. Discharged from the army in 1921 as medically unfit, he set more than 100 British and international speed records between 1936 and 1950.

July 1947

Mg EX 135 118.01mph Dashing ‘Goldie’ Gardner is at it again, this time breaking the International Class I 500cc record, using the same streamlinerbodied MG EX 135, but with its six-cylinder engine reduced to a four-cylinder unit by blanking off two of the cylinders.

HEalEy 2.4-litrE Elliott saloon 110.8mph

A timed two-way run proves that this is the world’s fastest standard production saloon car of its day.

BEntlEy 8-litrE 133.92mph

British racing driver Forrest Lycett pilots a modified Bentley along the Jabbeke straight to become the fastest car ever on Belgian soil.

September 1948

Mg EX 135/Jaguar HyBrid witH EXpEriMEntal four-cylindEr Jaguar Xk EnginE 176.6mph

(aBOVe MiDDle)

Lt Col Gardner breaks the flying mile, flying kilometre and 5km Class E records at Jabbeke. The fact that the car wasn’t supercharged was considered extraordinary.

May 1949 Jaguar Xk120 132.58mph (aBOVe riGHT)

Jaguar’s chief test driver Ron ‘Soapy’ Sutton pushes an early XK120 with aeroscreen, modified top gear ratio, passenger tonneau cover and streamlined undertray to become the world’s fastest production car. He hit 135mph at one point on the two-way average.

September 1949

Mg EX 135 154.86mph Gardner snatches three speed records for cars up to 500cc.

July 1950

Mg EX 135 121.09mph Gardner uses the record car again to break three Class J records in the up-to-350cc class.

July 1950 MG Ya 104.75mph

Goldie Gardner drives it to lay claim to being ‘the world’s fastest saloon’ with a 1.25-litre engine, although it has a non-standard supercharger.

June 1952 RoveR Gas TuRbine caR 152.69mph

Rover engineering legend Spen King drives the prototype registered JET 1, which instantly claimed the world record for a gas turbine-powered car.