Bluebird-Proteus CN7 taken at Goodwood Following the low-speed tests conducted at Goodwood, the CN7 was taken to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, scene of Campbell's father's last LSR triumph in 1935. In early September, CN7 accelerated from a standing start to just under in 24 seconds covering 1.5 miles, using approximately 80 per cent of the engine's full power. The LSR attempt however, which was heavily sponsored by BP, Dunlop, and other British motor component companies, was unsuccessful and CN7 was severely damaged during a high-speed crash on 16 September. Campbell suffered a fracture to his lower skull, a broken
Triumph Speed Twin features such as the transmission and clutch were straight from the Triumph single. Originally with girder forks, the sprung saddle was the only rear suspension as the Speed Twin had a rigid frame - also from the single cylinder production line. On the night of 14 November 1940 the majority of the city-centre of Coventry was destroyed by German bombs and the Triumph factory (which was working on an order of thousands of military specification 5T's) was completely wiped out, and all of Triumph's technical records, drawings and designs were destroyed. After the war the recovery of Triumph at Meriden