Arab stallion! CLASSIC CARS with IAN JOHNSON This week: Parry-Thomas Arab.

Byline: IAN JOHNSON 

THE son of a vicar, John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was born in Wrexham, North Wales, and he was a man with a mission.

Parry-Thomas had his eyes fixed on the World Land Speed record and this he smashed with a specially converted Higham Special on Pendine Sands, South Wales in 1927.

But he wanted to go faster still and tragedy struck on the next attempt to better his astonishing 173.331mph record as the car, named Babs, went out of control and crashed as it went hurtling towards the outer reaches of land speed.

Parry-Thomas was killed but Babs lives on. After many years buried where she came to rest in the sand, she has been lovingly restored by dedicated historic car fan Owen Wyn-Owen.

I actually once sat in this car which is one scary beast of a vehicle. Having driven modern cars on tracks at speeds over 140mph, I just could not envisage how this brute of near 28-litres could ever be stable at the speeds it actually achieved. Parry-Thomas must have been a very brave man.

But Parry-Thomas is remembered for another car in addition to Babs.

His influence was a moving factor in the Arab, a high speed road car introduced in Letchworth between 1926 and 1928.

The Arab was born of the enthusiasm of Reid Railton, Parry-Thomas's assistant at Leyland Motors in the early 1920s.

One of the most bizarre ideas of the golden days of motoring was to produce high-speed newspaper delivery vans. Needless to say, the project was shelved but 50 cylinder blocks were left on the shelf.

And so the Arab was born. It was certainly a good looking car and had enormous potential.

The engine was pure Parry-Thomas thinking with leaf rather than coil valve springs and, despite the high performance of this two-litre, it only had a two-bearing crankshaft.

However, production was slow and after the death of Parry-Thomas, Railton lost heart in the marque.

Now Arabs are as rare as hens' teeth. A 1926 Super Sport could hit 95mph and was an exhilarating drive.

Indeed it was actually guaranteed to reach 90mph.

I have never seen an Arab in the metal, but there are survivors. Some of the later ones were possibly built by Thompson & Taylor at Brooklands after the Letchworth factory closed down.

Yet another Great British might have-been - the history books are full of them.

CAPTION(S):

RARE BREED - I have never seen an Arab in the metal, but there are survivors hidden away