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British Steam Car attampt to break Land speed record: 204km/hour

by JeffHuang | April 11, 2009 at 10:30 am

168 views | 12 Recommendations | 4 comments

The British Steam Car Challenge team is set to break the world steam-powered land speed record.

The project originated to raise awareness for clean-buring fuels is hoping to reach 270 kilometers per hour during the land speed record breaking attempt. Amazingly, the previous record was set during 1906 by American Stanley Steamer at the unbelievable speed of 204 kilometres per hour.

Coming off a successful test last week at Thorney Island airfield in Hampshire, UK, where the car reached 130 kilometers per hour, they are now awaiting for Edwards Air Force Base in California to give them clearance to have the record attempt at Rogers Dry Lake.

The advantage of the dry lake is that it is 600 metres lower than Utah's famous Bonneville Salt Flats, so there is more oxygen available for the boilers, enabling the car to develop much more power.

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Vinny

at 14:12 on April 11th, 2009

That is a record that is long overdue to be broken!

batvette

at 20:51 on April 11th, 2009

I don't get the tie-in to raising awareness about clean burning fuels, it's a silly publicity stunt at best and not even a good one. What could possibly be less efficient than a steam powered vehicle? Nobody is going to start building steam powered vehicles no matter WHAT the hell is burned to make the steam.

Now a shot at the human or solar powered record would be relevant.... or a shot at how many ex GM executives you can throw off a building on top of a EV-1 electric car. (the electric vehicle they killed due to "lack of interest" despite all the owners picketing that they wanted to buy them all at full price!

I think they picked that record because it was easy to break and a low enough speed nobody is going to die trying. When you hit speeds like 240, 250 mph you have to start re-engineering common components and that gets a bit spendy.