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Steam-Powered Car Breaks Century-Old Speed Record

Posted by timothy on from the we-say-horsepower-but-not-buggywhip-power dept.

mcgrew writes "New Scientist reports that a steam-powered car has broken the 1906 record of 204 km/hr (127 mph) for the fastest steam-powered automobile, the Stanley Steamer. The Inspiration made a top speed of 225 kilometres per hour (140 miles per hour) on August 26. 'The car's engine burns liquid petroleum gas to heat water in 12 suitcase-sized boilers, creating steam heated to 400C. The steam then drives a two-stage turbine that spins at 13,000 revolutions per minute to power its wheels.The FIA requires two 1.6-km-long runs to be performed in opposite directions — to cancel out any effect from wind — within 60 minutes.'"

1 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. 140MPH. Embarassing. by Animats · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is embarrassing. Look at the thing. It looks like a land speed record vehicle. It's turbine powered. They took it to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where reaching 200 MPH in a straight line is no big deal. And they went 140MPH. Most production sports cars can do that. Some dragsters now exceed 300MPH for a quarter mile. If you don't have to corner, going fast is easy.

    The current land speed record for wheel-driven vehicles is 451 MPH. (The record for thrust-driven vehicles is over Mach 1, but those are really low-flying aircraft.) The record for electrics is 257 MPH. There was an unsuccessful British attempt to break 300 MPH with an electric car in 2005; the power train works but the vehicle was unstable in a crosswind. 357 MPH has been reached with a TGV train. (Maglevs do slightly better, with the record there being 361 MPH.)

    So 140 MPH on the Bonneville Salt Flats just isn't very impressive.