The 1920s Speed Merchants – Guinness, Campbell & the 350 hp Sunbeam | Season 5 – Episode 93
Uncategorized, Wheels Nov 21, 2025
In the 1920s, brothers Kenelm Lee and Algernon Arthur St Lawrence Lee Guinness, who grew up on the Farmleigh Estate in Castleknock, Dublin set speed records on racetracks and beaches alongside Henry Segrave, raised in nearby Cabra and Englishman Malcolm Campbell. Between them, they carved out remarkable careers as record breakers and true speed merchants of the decade.
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KENELM LEE GUINNESS
Kenelm Lee Guinness (1887–1937) was drawn early to the excitement of fast cars. He entered racing while still a student, beginning as riding mechanic to his brother Algernon “Algy” (1883–1954), before leaving Cambridge to pursue the sport full time. Unlike Algy, who drove by instinct, Kenelm studied circuits and technique carefully, always looking for the best possible performance.
His first major race came in 1907, driving a Darracq in the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man, but a damaged rear axle forced him to retire after two laps.
Spark plug failures were a constant frustration for the brothers, so in 1912 they began experimenting. By replacing fragile porcelain insulators with layered mica, Kenelm created a far more heat-resistant and dependable spark plug. The KLG (Kenelm Lee Guinness) plug quickly gained the trust of leading racing drivers.
BROOKLANDS & EARLY RECORDS
Kenelm began his record-breaking career in 1913 at the 2.7-mile (4.45 km) Brooklands circuit. The same year, he raced as an official Sunbeam driver under chief engineer Louis Coatalen, who oversaw major racing innovations: front-wheel brakes, wheel balancing, relocating the oil pump to the sump and championing the use of shock absorbers. Coatalen became a close friend and later built the Sunbeam 350 hp at Wolverhampton in 1919–1920, powered by a modified 18-litre V12 ‘Manitou’ aero engine.
In June 1914 Kenelm won the 600-mile (965.6 km) Isle of Man TT in a 3.3-litre Sunbeam, completing the race in 10 hours 38 minutes at an average of 56.44 mph (90.8 km/h).
OFFICIAL WORLD LAND SPEED
At the 1921 Brooklands Easter Meeting he first raced Coatalen’s Sunbeam 350 hp, taking second place in the Long Handicap despite losing second gear. On 17 May 1922 he returned to Brooklands and set a new official World Land Speed Record at 133.75 mph (215.2 km/h).
MALCOLM CAMPBELL
Later in the summer of 1922, Englishman Malcolm Campbell (1885 – 1948), borrowed the car from 350 hp car from Sunbeam to compete in the Saltburn Speed Trials in Yorkshire. His one-way run reached 138 mph (222 km/h), but it was not accepted as an official World Record. True to the fierce competitiveness of the speed merchants of the time, Campbell wasn’t satisfied with an unrecognised result and in 1923 he purchased the car from Sunbeam to mount a serious record attempt.
Campbell gave the car the first of several rebuilds and repainted it in his trademark blue, making it the fourth of his cars to carry the name ‘Blue Bird’. He would go on to break the land speed record in the car at Pendine Sands (beach), Wales, reaching 146.16 mph (235.2 km/h) in 1924.
Aiming for even greater speeds, Campbell put the Sunbeam up for sale and began planning a new record-breaking car. But before letting it go, he made one final bid to break the 150 mph mark and on July 21st 1925, drove the car to a new Land Speed Record of 150.76 mph (242.5 km/h), becoming the first man to exceed 150 mph.
HENRY SEGRAVE
After growing up in Cabra, Dublin, Henry Segrave (1896–1930) joined Kenelm Guinness on the Sunbeam team in the mid-1920s and went on to set three land speed records and one water speed record, becoming the first person to hold both titles at the same time.
On Daytona Beach in 1927, Segrave broke the 200 mph (321.8 km/h) World Land Speed Record in the Sunbeam 1000 hp car. He returned to Daytona in March 1929 with the 925 hp, 23.9-litre, naturally aspirated Napier Lion W12-engined ‘Golden Arrow’ and set a new record of 231.45 mph (372.46 km/h).
Together, the Guinness brothers, Malcolm Campbell and Henry Segrave turned the 1920s into a decade of daring runs and shattered records and were true speed merchants pushing the limits of what was possible.
Check out our previous stories on the race drivers mentioned in this story:
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Sources of Information, Photo and Video Credits:
203.792 Miles An Hour (1927) – British Pathé
A Mile In A 13 Of A Minute (1925) – British Pathé
Heritage Images//Getty Images
Kenelm Lee Guinness – Historic Racing Website
National Motor Museum UK
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (UK)
The Lee Guinness Motor Racing Car Circling Brooklands (1919) – British Pathé
Wiki
