British film and television actor Idris Elba, star of the Wire, Pacific Rim and the man hotly tipped to succeed Daniel Craig as the next James Bond, has broken a land speed record that lasted for 88 years.
The Flying Mile record was previously set on the 4th of February 1927 by Sir Malcolm Campbell on the Pendine Sands in Wales. Sir Campbell had set a two–way average speed record of 174.8 miles per hour. He drove the renowned Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, designed by C. Amherst Villiers and powered by a Napier Lion aero engine with around 500bhp.
The record is based on the average speed of a vehicle racing across two straight rolling start runs of a mile each. Driving a Bentley Continental GT Speed, Idris Elba clocked an average speed of 180.361 miles per hour breaking an almost hundred year old record.
The star who will have done his credentials as a potential next Bond no harm at all, said “I’m absolutely elated to have broken the Flying Mile at Pendine Sands. It’s an honor to have taken on the challenge, and to successfully follow in the footsteps of the illustrious Sir Malcolm Campbell”.
And a challenge it certainly was, to control such a powerful car on such an unpredictable and inconsistent surface, at the mercy of tidal conditions, undulating plains and large pools of water. The Bentley was powered by a 6 litre twin turbo W12 engine, automatic transmission and state of the art engine management software. It can achieve zero–to–sixty in 4.0 seconds (0-100 km/h in 4.2s), and a top speed of 206 miles per hour (331 km/h).
