The most poorly conceived race car in the history of the world land speed record might well be the unfortunate White Triplex of 1928-29.

James H. White, it is said, had no particular skills or experience in automobile racing. The wealthy Philadelphia wire manufacturer (above, standing next to his racer) simply decided that he wanted to bring the world land speed record, then hotly contested by two British racers, Henry Segrave and Malcolm Campbell, to the United States. White (no relation to the Cleveland automaker) named his car the White Triplex in honor of its most notable attribute: It was powered by a trio of massive aircraft engines, one in front of the driver and two behind.

While the Triplex has often been described as “crude,” that might be too kind. The three engines—World War I-vintage Liberty V12s, each displacing nearly 1650 cubic inches—were coupled to the rear axle in direct drive, with no clutches or transmissions. Thus the unlikely machine had somewhere between 1200 and 1500 horsepower driving the rear wheels, but it had to be pushed to fire the engines and it lacked any way to back up. White’s crew lashed up two different ad hoc reversing mechanisms to satisfy the technical rules, one using a third axle and an additional pair of drive wheels (below) and somehow this and the machine’s other questionable features passed through inspection.

To pilot his seaweed-green monster, White hired a first-class journeyman driver, Ray Keech. He was seriously burned twice while trying to manhandle the Triplex, once by a burst coolant hose and a second time by hot exhaust gas, but on April 22, 1928, he set a new land speed record of 207.55 mph on the ribbon of sand at Daytona Beach, Florida. Just as White had hoped, the speed record was back in American hands.

The White Triplex mark was short-lived, however, as on March 11, 1929 at Daytona Beach, Segrave’s Golden Arrow (powered by a 925-hp Napier Lion W12) retook the record with a speed of 231.45 mph. White then asked Keech to return for another attempt with the Triplex, but Keech had already had enough of the sketchy, ill-handling beast. As if to validate his good judgement in turning down the ride, Keech would win the Indy 500 that year driving Maude Yagle’s rear-drive Miller, but then he was tragically killed only two weeks after that in a gruesome crash on the board track at Altoona.

Possibly out of desperation, White (below left) next turned to his crew to fill the seat of the Triplex. Lee Bible (below right) was  a 41 year-old mechanic and garage operator from Tennessee with little race driving experience, but after a few practice runs the AAA contest officials allowed him to continue. On his first official timed run on March 13 at Ormond Beach a few miles north of Daytona, he managed 186 mph, hopelessly short of the record. Then on his return run he was clocked at 202 mph when suddenly, the car swerved—just as Bible abruptly lifted the throttle, some say. As the car tumbled through the sand, Bible was ejected from the cockpit, killing him instantly, and then it ran over Miami newsreel cameraman Charles Traub, killing him as well. And there ends the short, sad story of the White Triplex.