Many great drivers competed at the Brooklands circuit, but one man stood out from even this exalted crowd. Malcolm Campbell’s record-breaking exploits made him a household name. Campbell began his career as a racing driver at Brooklands before the First World War. Among the cars he piloted was a Darracq, which he christened ‘Bluebird’ – a name he was to use repeatedly for his cars in subsequent years.

In early 1921 he arrived at Brooklands for a record attempt with a Sunbeam powered by a mighty 257-kW V12 engine. Campbell proceeded to reach 217 km/h (135 mph) on the Railway Straight and an impressive 225 km/h (140 mph) on the start-finish straight. Then, on 16 May 1922, the same car set a new lap record of 199.39 km/h (123.90 mph) and several other speed records over a range of distances. This lap record and his 220.72 km/h (137.15 mph) over a kilometre with flying start remained unbeaten for seven years.

Campbell subsequently bought the car for a bargain price which has never been disclosed. He then rebuilt it, painted it blue, named it Bluebird, and set off for the Fanoe Island speed trials in Denmark. There he recorded a mark of 235.6 km/h (146.4 mph), but these figures were never officially recognised, much to his frustration, even though the timing apparatus had been properly certified.

Campbell was not a man to be easily defeated, though, and after a lot of expensive tuning work he took the car to Pendine Sands in Britain in September 1924, where he recorded an official 235.22 km/h (146.16 mph) – 0.015 of a second faster than Ernest Eldridge's previous record set in a Fiat Mephistopholes at Arpajon in France. Immediately afterwards he put the car up for sale for £ 1,500 sterling, but had second thoughts when he learned that Parry Thomas was about to make a serious attempt on his record in the famous Higham Special, which Thomas had renamed ‘Babs’.

Back at Pendine on 21 July 1925 Campbell lifted his record to 242.63 km/h
(150.77 mph), which made him the first driver to exceed 240 km/h (approx. 150 mph). The following year, however, Henry Segrave took over the title of the fastest man on earth in Sunbeam's monster twin-engined 735-kW car. Campbell refused to throw in the towel, but revenge was several years in coming. On 3 September 1935, he eventually reclaimed the land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA. His Napier-Campbell took him to a new mark of 484.62 km/h (301.13 mph) in a performance that earned him a knighthood. The later history of the car, whose body was put together in a wooden hut at Brooklands which is still standing today, is a testament to Campbell’s gritty determination to succeed at almost any cost. Sir Malcolm Campbell died on 31 December 1948.

Malcolm Campbell also owned a Mercedes-Benz SS, which built up quite a reputation in Great Britain on the back of Campbell’s considerable success in a number of races at the wheel of this sporty car. One of his victories in the SS came on 9 June 1930 in the Mountain Speed handicap at the Whitsun meeting at Brooklands over a distance of twelve miles. In Ireland, meanwhile, he recorded a speed of 115.11 km/h (71.53 mph) on wet roads in the 1930 Tourist Trophy and took victory after almost four hours at the wheel – eight and a half minutes ahead of the field. On 25 May 1931, he returned to Brooklands with the SS to set a track record in the eight-litre class with a speed of 118.91 km/h (73.89 mph) with flying start. The official top speed of the Mercedes-Benz SS was 200 km/h (approx. 125 mph) – an almost inconceivable level of performance back in the 1930s. Malcolm Campbell’s Mercedes-Benz SS has survived to the present day and is held in a private collection.