Percy Lambert — The World's First 100mph Man
This playlist celebrates the life and legacy of Percy Lambert, one of Brooklands' greatest racing drivers and the first person in the world to travel 100 miles in one hour. On 15 February 1913, driving a 25hp Invincible Talbot at Brooklands, Percy achieved an average speed of over 100 mph for one hour, becoming the first person in history to reach this remarkable milestone.
Sadly, Percy Lambert's racing career ended in tragedy. Having briefly lost the record to a French challenger, he persuaded his fiancée to allow him one final attempt to regain it. He returned to Brooklands on 21 October 1913. For the first twenty laps he averaged around 110 mph, but on the twenty-first lap a rear tyre failed on the Members' Banking. The Talbot crashed and rolled down the banking, fatally injuring him. He died on the way to Weybridge Cottage Hospital, aged just 32.
The playlist includes videos filmed during the Percy Lambert Centenary Celebrations at Brooklands, together with a fascinating Halloween torchlight tour, because local legend claims that Percy Lambert's ghost still walks the circuit carrying his head beneath his arm — a story that has become part of Brooklands folklore for more than a century.
All videos in this playlist
See also the story of the Brooklands Napier-Railton, which later held the outright Brooklands lap record, and Special People No Longer Here, celebrating other lives well lived and lost too soon.
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