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: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: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

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.

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: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