There's good news and bad news out of Edwards Air Force Base, where the British Steam Car has finally made a successful test run but is postponing its run for the world record until mid-August.
As we told you yesterday, Team Steam has been plagued by mechanical problems since arriving in Southern California one month ago. The team hopes to set a new land speed record for a steam-powered vehicle. The goal is to achieve 170 mph, which would easily surpass the official record of 127.659 mph that Fred Marriott set in 1906 behind the wheel of a Stanley Steamer Rocket.
All of the troubles seemed to be behind them Tuesday when the car peeled off its first test run on U.S. soil. Test driver Don Wales strapped himself into the 25-foot long car christened Inspiration and the crew fired her up.
"We reached 77 mph over a very short distance of just 1 kilometer, which was comparable to our tests at Thorney," project manager Matt Candy said in a statement. "We were due to do a high speed return run but the gas rig had trouble refueling and so we had to abort it."
Candy says the team will replace the gas pump and continue testing. There's also an issue with a bypass valve that stayed open for about one-fifth of the run, wasting most of the steam produced by the car's 12 microboilers. (See our earlier post for more details about the car's tech.)
"This can be rectified," Candy said of the valve problem, "and knowing that it not performing to its full capacity is really encouraging news, as we can utilize the steam to generate more power than we thought we had."
The team had hoped to topple Marriott's record by Tuesday, but with so much work to do it is postponing its runs until Aug. 17.
“It’s important that the technical issues with the support rigs are resolved before an attempt is made, and these things can’t be rushed," Candy said.
We'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, check out all our coverage of the British Steam Car here.
Photo and graphic: British Steam Car
