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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.'"

2 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Moa8e by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    the developer us the courtesy Contact to see if The timE to mmet of Jordan Hubbard needs OS. Now BSDI backward and said Roots and gets on

  2. 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.