A. T. Goldie Gardner 1936 and 1950 he set over 100 international and local speed records throughout England, Europe and the USA. In September 1948 immediately before the announcement of Jaguar's new engine since named XK he broke the flying mile, kilometre and five-kilometre Class E records on the new motor road near Ostend. At the time it was considered remarkable that his engine was unsupercharged. The same engine was used, an experimental Jaguar 2-litre 4-cylinder modified to suit the class requirements. The new records were: mile 173.678 mph, kilometre 177.112 mph and five kilometres 170.523 mph. In 1951 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah,
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