British Steam Car Breaks 103 Year Old Speed Record

This is a follow-up to a post we did back in April.
The British Steam Car Challenge was attempting to break a 103 year old speed record for a steam powered vehicle.
The previous record of 127mph was held by a Stanley Steamer (no, not the carpet cleaners!) at Daytona Beach, Florida.
The new record, albeit awaiting confirmation by FIA (the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) is 139.843mph.
Wow, it only took 103 years to squeeze 12+ more mph from a steam engine.
Either that is a testament to the engineering of 1906, or these guys just didn’t quite “open it up”.
Of course, this vehicle weighs in at 3 tons, is 25 feet long and has 12 boilers!
The record was set at the drylake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in Califiornia.
Yes, that’s where the shuttle sometimes lands.

Below is a re-posting of the original blog post we did back in April, just to refresh you with the vehicle.

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From across the “pond” comes word on a vehicle that, quite honestly, looks like something Luke Skywalker would take to work.

The British Steam Car is an almost $1 Million dollar attempt to break a 103 year old land speed record for steam powered vehicles. That 1906 record was an incredible 127 mph, in a Stanley Steamer. (No, not the carpet cleaners!) The British Steam car team hopes to better this record by reaching a speed of 170 mph.

After rigorous testing in the UK, the team will be shipping the car to the U.S. They are planning to use the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, where the Shuttle sometimes lands. Although, word is Edwards has had a wetter than normal winter, so the bed may need to dry out. Where’s global warming when we need it?

The Steam Car is a mixture of carbon-fiber composite and aluminum over a steel space frame chassis. Internally, it carries 12 boilers, and has almost 2 miles of tubing. De-mineralized water is pumped into the boilers at upwards of 50 liters a minute.
The steam is heated to 400 degress Celsius. This can be accomplished because the water is under extreme pressure. The resulting steam is injected into turbines at over twice the speed of sound. The turbines drive the rear wheels.
Even with the carbon-fiber and aluminum, this vehicle still tips the scales at 3 tons.

Check out the video below of a test run in the UK. The Steam Car may only have achieved a speed in this run of approximately 60 mph, but remember, it’s running on steam!

For more information, pleas visit the Steam Car Challenge website.

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