Team Postpones Attempt To Break Steam Car Speed Record
British engineers were forced to halt their latest attempt to break the longest-standing land speed record after the car’s turbine became stuck, BBC News reported.
The team traveled to Edwards air base in California’s Mojave Desert for four days of preparation to break the world steam car record. They were confident that their steam car, Inspiration, would reach speeds of 170mph.
American Fred Marriot holds the current world steam car record of 127mph, set in Florida in 1906.
FIA records require the cars make two runs in opposite directions, which have to be less than an hour apart and averaged out. The team said on Saturday it had unofficially beaten the steam car record during test runs.
They’re now hoping to resume official attempts as soon as possible.
The team spent 10 years in Lymington building the 25ft-long three-ton car, nicknamed the "fastest kettle in the world" and the "lean, green, mean machine".
The car’s main financial backer, Charles Burnett III, is driving the car.
Matt Candy, the car’s project manager, said they had been experiencing problems during the test runs, including overheating electrical components that required daily use of dry ice to cool them.
Candy said they also had a lot of gas pressure problems, due to the temperature causing the liquid propane to vaporize further up the car than normal.
"We’ve had vapor locks. We’ve had pumps that couldn’t cope with the extra pressure," he added.
However, despite those problems the car still achieved a 137mph average over two test runs.
Among the team members are test driver Don Wales, nephew of the late Donald Campbell and grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell. The two have achieved more than 20 land and water speed records.
“The main engineering obstacle was to develop a compact boiler system which every minute could turn 8.8 gallons of water into superheated steam at 752 Fahrenheit, at 40 times atmospheric pressure,” said Wales.
A test run on Thorney Island, near Emsworth, in March had to be stopped after technical problems set in.
American Fred Marriott, who drove a steam car dubbed “the Rocket” on Ormond Beach, Florida, now known as Daytona Beach, set the longest-standing land speed record recognized by the Federation International Automobile (FIA).
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