The British Steam Car Challenge

Van Cutter Romney sends us word of a British steam-powered car that will attempt to set a world record speed of 200 mph. The car, constructed on a tubular chassis, holds four boilers that deliver four megawatts of power, producing 300 bhp. The current record of 127.659 mph was established in 1906. More photos and specs at the Steam Car Club of Great Britain's site.

Comments

would I be wrong to say

[dotpavan]

that this car is "hot"? would I be ensured a "steamy ride" on this? :)

Vaporware

[TodMinuit]

I bet this turns out to be nothing but a bunch of hot air!

4MW?

[mastershake_phd]

4 mega watts? You could power a small town with that.

Re:4MW?

[jimbug]

orrrrrrrr you could drive really fast! Which is a better use of power?

Re:4MW?

[JesseL]

Steam engines are obsolete? WTF?

How do you get electricity out of your nuclear power plant?

Re:4MW?

[rossdee]

"How do you get electricity out of your nuclear power plant?"

Photovoltaic cells

(The fusion reactor is a a safe distance of 93 million miles)

Damned inefficient

[overshoot]

Four megawatts turning into 300 bhp?

Should be well over 4000 bhp, since one bhp is 746 watts. Looks like an amazing amount of conversion loss there.

Re:Damned inefficient

[frdmfghtr]

Should be well over 4000 bhp, since one bhp is 746 watts. Looks like an amazing amount of conversion loss there.

I think it's more a case where not all the energy contained in the steam is used for forward motion. The last thing you want to do is extract all that energy from the steam in the turbine, since in doing so would change the steam back into water. Water and high-speed steam turbines are not a good mix, unless you want to have shards of turbine flying about.

Instead, you extract as much energy as you can, while keeping the steam hot enough at the final turbine outlet pressure to prevent the phase change. In fact, most of the energy put into the steam (in some cases 75%) is removed AFTER the steam goes through the turbine, by way of the condensers.

Re:Damned inefficient

[xero314]

The IC engine is far more efficient in comparison. If Internal Combustion is so much more efficient why is the vast majority of energy produced on earth is converted to electricity through turbines rather than internal combustion driven generators? Gas turbine engines have been produced with a energy conversion efficiency of 46%, as compared to ICs which have reached 42% (both maximums taken from working models not theoretical). It is also easier to addapt heat recovery systems to turbine engines than it is to internal combustion. Now multi stage steam turbines actually surpass Both the IC and the Gass turbine and are capable of reaching 95% isentropic efficiency. I just think you are missing some factors in your efficiency equation.

Re:Damned inefficient

[spaceyhackerlady]

Precisely why the internal combustion engine was developed. The IC engine is far more efficient in comparison.

Back in Ye Olden Tymes (TM), it wasn't at all clear how those newfangled horseless carriages were going to be powered. There were electric ones, steam ones, and gasoline powered ones. Steam was a mature technology and well-understood, electric was silent but had range issues, and gasoline was just plain dangerous. Steam was the initial leader. Henry Ford selected gasoline for his Model T, and the rest was history.

With fossil fuels, greenhouse gases and all that, it doesn't matter how efficient gasoline engines are, if what they run on is too expensive to be practical. Sure, steam engines have thermodynamic limits. But they also have very nice emissions qualities, and excellent torque characteristics. I'd be very interested in seeing what a modern steam car could do.

The gasoline engine car makers actually ran FUD ads about how dangerous electric cars were. They were so quiet that you couldn't hear them coming, and risked getting run over!

...laura

Re:Damned inefficient

[the_weasel]

Yep. Damn silence used to blanket the world like a fog. Thank god modern progress has defeated the awful quiet. We have driven it away with beeps, honks, bangs, rings and clashes. I don't know how I would sleep without the gentle lullaby of the cooling fans....

Sarcasm naturally (it is my specialty!).

If I had a sniper rifle, every last son of a bitch with a Harley modded for sound would have it shot out from under them as they rounded the corner to my house. I don't accept the "It's so other cars can hear me coming" excuse either. I have been riding motorcycles for decades, and the best way to do that is to drive like everyone around you is out to get you.

We have allowed our world to become polluted with more than just chemicals - we let the noise in too. I am willing to bet it has as much an impact on our long term health.

[RANT OFF]

Re:Damned inefficient

[DigiShaman]

The IC engine was developed as a replacement for steam powered piston locomotion and paddle wheel boating (think river boats on the Mississippi).

For modern electric plants, steam turbines (running on natural gas or coal) are used and often running with a constant load. This makes for better optimization. In fact, all nuclear power plants use steam turbines. But if you think running a steam turbine in an automobile is far more efficient than an IC, you're mistaken. We don't have heat recovery technolgy that scales down small enough to be as effective as the ones running our power plants.

Re:Damned inefficient

[spaceyhackerlady]

It's important however to understand *why* gasoline won out however. External combustion cars required anywhere from half an hour upwards before they were ready to creep, and required considerable maintenance. Internal combustion cars were ready to go within a few minutes and required much less maintenance.

Yup. That advantage came with the development of kettering ignition. Prior to that most internal combustion engines used glow ignition, where you had to heat the external part of the ignition system with a blowtorch until it was hot enough. The same sort of system is still used in model airplane engines, but their electric glow plugs make them a lot easier to start.

The local electric car club have a 1912 Detroit, albeit with modern lead-acid batteries replacing the original Edison cells. I've ridden in it; it feels like a telephone booth on wheels. But except for a slight whirr from the driveline, it's silent. These were the cars that made people like Henry Ford nervous.

...laura

Re:Steam isn't an energy source

[OverlordQ]

Thank you for personifying the typical Slashdotter by not Reading the Farking Article.

From TFA's Seventh Sentence:

Motive power is from a two-stage steam turbine, fed by a boiler fired on LPG.

Thank you, come again.

Strange Definition of Alternative Fuels

[Dunx]

One of the stated aims is to generate excitement around alternative fuels, and yet it runs on LPG.

Very curious.

Re:Steam isn't an energy source

[MyLongNickName]

And where does this coal come from? Carbon. And where does carbon come from? Exploding stars. YOU PEOPLE HAVE TO KILL STARS JUST SO YOU CAN DRIVE A CAR! Won't anyone think of the stars?

Re:Pointless

[The-Ixian]

yes, because all of the engineers in the world were busy at work on this project for the last 10 years!
We are now reaching the end of the development cycle and are ready to release this new, high-speed steam racer to the public.
  This will surely replace all of our current, more efficient automobiles.

1906 speed more impressive.

[stimpleton]

"The current record of 127.659 mph was established in 1906"

Actually, from TFA, the accepted speed was 121.57mph over one kilometer.

Regardless, I am very, very impressed by the above.

With the advent of better machining, lighter materials, and vastly better bearing and bushing technology etc of today, this makes the 1906 record all the more incredible.

I am going to make a fairly spectacular statement. This small team, in 1906, was as clever as the 14 person combined team that is doing the current days project.

Team credentials / engineering.

[DerekLyons]

It's interesting all the people they list at the end with their credentials. However, someone with experience at designing high capacity high pressure boilers is noteable by his absence from the list. (The heat exchangers listed in one fellow's brief biography are almost, but not quite the same thing.)
 
One of the pictures on another page shows the water becoming superheated steam inside one of the boilers - seemingly in the last of the four boilers. Though much depends on the exact layout of the tubes in their boiler, normally superheaters are behind a wall of other tubes. It is very easy to overheat a superheater - leading to tube failure.
 
But most interestingly - there is no steam seperator between the water tubes and the superheater. This will make it easier (trivial in fact) for a slug of water to reach the turbine if things go pear shaped.

Re:Not really a steam car.

[AKAImBatman]

This is not a steam car in the conventional sense, as it does not burn coal.

If you think a car needs to burn coal in order to be a "Steam Car", then you're seriously out of it. Conventional steam cars burn a variety of fuels, including gasoline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_car

Steam engines are valued for their excellent power to weight ratios, general efficiency, and greater torque capacity. They also have fewer moving parts so maintenece schedules are quite good, as long as you don't leak your working fluid. (i.e. Water) Thankfully it's quite easy to replace lost water, and can be done as part of regular maintenece. (Think: Flushing and replacing water while changing oil.)

Or maybe you're trying to be funny. It's hard to tell. :-/

Re:Steam isn't an energy source

[Vombatus]

What about the children of the stars?

Copyright extension laws will look after them, of course.

I'd like to register a complaint....

[owlnation]

As one who adores steampunk, I'm extremely disappointed to find that this car looks positively modern and computer designed.

Of course I understand they are trying to break records and aerodynamics is a factor, but surely a few pipes, wrought iron and wood paneling wouldn't hurt too much? Fast it may be, but desirable? Nay sir, I fear this contraption is not for gentlemen.

Coolest thing about steam cars

[PenGun]

Max torque ... 0 RPM. The Stanley Steamers used to be able to put one wheel on a phone pole and drive up it a few feet.