A PEMBROKE Dock mechanic has set his sights on breaking a land speed record set at Pendine sands nearly 90 years ago in a car he is building from scratch.

Tony Brown, 51, who owns a garage in Pembroke Dock, started building a prototype of the Marcos Spirit 220 last year.

Having previously worked in motorsport, including F1, Tony has always wanted to design and build his own car. And when he bought the rights to Marcos - a well-known British marque which built its first cars in Wales in 1959 – it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The car has since generated a great deal of interest and has even been driven by Gary Simms, a rising star of sports car and GT racing.

This autumn Tony is hoping to hit speeds of more than 175mph during his planned record attempt.

The land-speed record was broken at Pendine sands in April 1926 in Babs, the famous Higham Special driven by John Parry Thomas.

It was broken again in February 1927 by Malcolm Campbell who drove 174.883 mph.

But tragedy struck during a subsequent record attempt the following month when Babs crashed killing Parry Thomas’.

It was the end of land speed racing at Pendine and Babs was buried in the dunes where she lay for 42 years.

Tony is hoping his new improved version of the Marcos Spirit 220 has what it takes to make history.

“If she hits 200mph she will be first super Marcos car,” he said.

“We should have a very, very fast car. The old car does 150/160mph, no problems, with half the horsepower.

“This will be a Welsh man with a Welsh car built in Wales driving on a Welsh beach going for the Welsh record.

“I’m excited about it all, not nervous - I’ve driven fast cars before.”