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UK team attempts steam car record
A team of British engineers are to begin four days of attempts to break the longest-standing land speed record.
They hope their steam car, Inspiration, will achieve speeds of 170mph (274km/h) at Edwards air base, in California's Mojave Desert.
The Hampshire-based team says it unofficially beat the steam car record of more than 127mph (204km/h), set in 1906, during test runs on Saturday.
For FIA records, two mile-long runs in opposite directions are averaged out.
The 25ft-long (7.6m) three-tonne car, nicknamed the "fastest kettle in the world" and the "lean, green, mean machine", has been 10 years in the making in Lymington.
It is being driven by its main financial backer Charles Burnett III.
But project manager Matt Candy admits there have been problems during the test runs.
"We've had overheating electrical components, so we've started using an awful lot of dry ice every day to cool those," he said.
"We've also had a lot of gas pressure problems, due to the temperature causing the liquid propane to vaporise further up the car than it normally does.
"We've had vapour locks. We've had pumps that couldn't cope with the extra pressure."
But the car still achieved a 137mph (221km/h) average over two runs, which have to be less than an hour apart, according to the British Steam Car Challenge website.
Century-old record
The British team includes test driver Don Wales, nephew of the late Donald Campbell and grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell. Between them, those two ancestors achieved more than 20 land and water speed records.
Mr Wales told the BBC that the main engineering obstacle was to develop a compact boiler system which every minute could turn 40 litres (8.8 gallons) of water into superheated steam at 400C (752F), at 40 times atmospheric pressure.
The team was forced to abandon a test run in March on Thorney Island, near Emsworth, when technical problems set in.
The longest-standing land speed record is recognised by the Federation International Automobile (FIA).
American Fred Marriot set the record in a steam car dubbed "the Rocket" on Ormond Beach, Florida, now known as Daytona Beach.

Story from BBC NEWS:
https://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/hampshire/8206560.stm

Published: 2009/08/19 02:57:13 GMT

© BBC MMIX
 
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