The JR and the Palm Beach Mk2 used our own version of the American Indianapolis safety hub. The driveshaft of this assembly originated from the standard Allard stub axle forging (made I believe from EN18 steel) and was also subject to failure. While any chance of losing a wheel was addressed the persistent shaft failure was not entirely solved. This hub assembly was not interchangeable with the Ford based outer hub because the De Dion axle end plate dimensions had to be changed to accept the larger hub assembly. Also, it could only be used in conjunction with wire wheels. In later years (around 1968), I designed and had made, a new hub carrier which fitted the standard De Dion axle end plate and utilised the Jaguar E Type hub assembly. This set-up was fitted to Jim Tiller’s J2 and clearly overcame the shortcomings of the original design. One disadvantage was that it required new wheels, because both wheel stud pitch centre diameter and the wheel offset had to be changed.
The initial publicity for the car was extremely good because it was the first purpose-built dragster to be built in this country and would help start a trend towards Drag Racing. Most impressive was the sound, which was ear shattering particularly when standing directly behind the car. The American warning that ear defenders should be worn was clearly true. The first running of the car was at North Weald which was in the process of being run down by the RAF. The runway was some one and a half miles long and in relatively good condition. Initially no times were attempted, the object being to evaluate how all the systems worked. The first deployment of the parachute at around 130mph worked well, however the somewhat laborious task of repackaging the chute had to be done before running again. While the initial acceleration using top gear was satisfactory it was done without any wheel spin. Bearing in mind that we were only running seven-inch wide slicks it had been thought the car would have been capable of a degree of spin. An attempt to use second gear was short lived as it was unable to accept the power produced by the super- charged 354 Cu Ins Chrysler engine. Using direct drive times for the quarter mile distance, which were in the low 11 second bracket and not particularly quick, when applied to the Brighton Speed Trials over a kilometre it would make a time of less than 18 seconds possible.