Steam Car Sets Speed Record

[FlyTexas]

139.8 mph! Wow!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090825/tuk ... a1618.html

Brian

[Filonian]

Well done. I suppose the water was then hot enough for a celebratory brew?

Graham

[John]

Just listen to the noise it makes! ffffaaannnttasssttiiccc!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hamp ... 209288.stm

Kind regards

John

[speedbird591]

It is made from a mixture of lightweight carbon-fibre composite and aluminium wrapped around a steel space frame chassis and fitted with 12 boilers containing nearly two miles of tubing.

Yet it beat a 103 year old record by only 12mph! What the hell were they using???

Ian :o

[airboatr]

Well done. I suppose the water was then hot enough for a celebratory brew?

Graham

yeah, but the tea here is absolute shite , so.....

[Nigel H-J]

Yet it beat a 103 year old record by only 12mph! What the hell were they using???

Gawd knows....but I guess this attempt could be called progress in one way or another..... :roll:

Nigel.

[TSR2]

I was thinking the same thing, but I imagine that steam has certain properties that dictate the speed at which it can expand etc, so there is probably not much more that can be gotten out of it.

[FlyTexas]

It is made from a mixture of lightweight carbon-fibre composite and aluminium wrapped around a steel space frame chassis and fitted with 12 boilers containing nearly two miles of tubing.

Yet it beat a 103 year old record by only 12mph! What the hell were they using???

Ian :o

This. ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stanleyracerwreck.jpg

Brian

[SkippyBing]

I was thinking the same thing, but I imagine that steam has certain properties that dictate the speed at which it can expand etc, so there is probably not much more that can be gotten out of it

I think it's probably more to do with drag increasing as a square of speed which means you start to need a massive increase in horsepower for a relatively small increase in top end speed. I'm assuming they're using a turbine attached to a gearbox whereas the Stanley Steamer may have been using pistons to develop it's 50 hp. Details of the current record holder are here http://www.steamcar.co.uk/design/details.html, it seems quite heavy at three tons so that may also contribute to the relatively small increase. I'm guessing the increased altitude and temperature at Edwards vs Daytona Beach is also be a factor.