Steam Land Speed Record

The land speed record for a steam powered car hasn't been broken in over 100 years. It's currently held by a purpose built Stanley steamer and the record was set in 1906. (On Ormond Beach, Florida.)

Well the Brits are at the Land Speed business again and hope to eclipse the record of 127 mph by going 170 mph. There's some interesting technology involved, but if you've ever been around steam cars from the turn of the last century you will come away with an understanding of why gasoline engined cars prevailed.

So far they've taken baby steps, shaking down components, before going wide open throttle. They've had the beast up to 80 mph, less than half design speed.

Now I wonder if they can run a steam car on the salt flats? ;-)

The group is 'The British Steam Car Challenge' and their Web page is here.

Hat tip to Motor Authority.

Land Speed Records

An earlier post mentioned land speed record racers on Ormond Beach Florida. After the first few years on the hard packed sands of the Atlantic coast (and equivalent runs in Britain), the speeds dictated that new surfaces for LSR cars be found. The American west just happened to have some ideal locations, Muroc dry lake, in California, being an early venue and also the Bonneville salt flats in Utah.

Jet powered and rocket engined LSR cars started making their way onto the scene in the 1960s and quickly stretched the top speed records. But they had another impact, they consumed large distances during their runs. Don't think of top speed, or time to speed, but rather think of distance to speed (and equally important, distance from speed to zero speed - these things don't have the best brakes. ; -).

Muroc quickly became too small (just as Ormond Beach had years before) and when the assault on the sound barrier came, Bonneville came up short. The Thurst SSC program used the Black Rock desert in Nevada to break the sound barrier.

Here's some vid of the Thurst SSC. (Did they use the Alan Parson's Project for background music? ; -)



Now comes an attempt to break the land speed 1,000 MPH barrier. (Hat tip to Motor Authority)



All in all these are heroic and peaceful endeavors and worthy of respect. But my favourite (since the British are so integrally bound to LSR attempts) is the JCB Diesel Max LSR. (And notice they used a bit of the Thurst SSC B-roll vid - the JCB Diesel Max and the Thurst SSC were both piloted by Squadron Leader Andy Green.)



Read more about LSR:
'Land Speed' Louise Noeth's, 'Bonneville Salt Flats'
Charles Jennings, 'The Fast Set'