Heroes (unsung)

Famous Belgians. Splendid chaps, none of them.

One of my all time heroes is a chap called Camille Jenatzy. A not so famous Belgian.

Heroes are everywhere these days. They don't do much of course; you're a hero for simply doing your job (like an American soldier in Iraq) or coping with some disease that lots of other people get. But not that long ago heroes did remarkable things. I don't mean like the heroes in film and television either, which represent a romanticised vision of fighting adversity.

I'm talking about heroism that extends human understanding and that future generations can build upon. Jenatzy fits the bill perfectly.

Back in 1898 this eccentric inventor was experimenting with electric power. At the time the motor car was in its infancy and nobody had decided which of the three methods of propulsion being used would become the standard. Jenatzy favoured electric power over both steam and the combustion engine.

He might well have been about 200 years ahead of his time on this, as electric cars are making a comeback but his reasons for thinking petrol wouldn't last were sound - petrol driven cars were slow and the car would need to be fast if it were to offer it's full potential. And that was where he came in.

Over in France the Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat decided he would set a marker in the dust - it became the Land Speed Record (LSR). His Jeantaud electric powered car reached the fantastic speed of 39.24 mph on 18th December 1898 at Acheres just outside Paris (now a suburb within its boundaries). It doesn't seem very fast now but this was the cutting edge.

Jenatzy was spurred on and so he decided to meet the Count in Acheres and race head to head. Over the next few months they faced each other on several occasions and their rivalry inspired a number of innovations. Jenatzy shaped his car to make the most of aerodynamics while the Count created the steering wheel - each in an effort to gain an advantage over the other.

Jenatzy won thorugh in the end. He was the first person to ever drive a car above 40mph, and on 29th April 1899 he set his final record by reaching 65.79 mph (therefore becoming the first person to drive a car over the 100kph mark). Six months of competition had driven the record higher and higher and it was Jenatzy's commitment that made that possible. It is summed up in the name he gave his car - and this sums up the spirit of human endeavour perfectly and mirrors every subsequent attack on the LSR. He named his car Le Jemais Content - The Never Satisfied.

The following year petrol cars found enough speed to break his record, and over a hundred years later it is jet power that sets the standards. The current LSR stands at 763.03 mph, set by fighter pilot Andy Green in the Thrust SSC in 1997 and an American team is looking to break the 800mph barrier as soon as possible. The spirit of Le Jamais Contente lives on and so it should.

Sources: The Land Speed Record, Compiled by R M Clarke - Brooklands Books