Mad dogs and Englishmen come out in the noonday sun, especially at Edward’s Air Force Base, the home of so many speed records that even Chuck Yeager can't remember them all. In this case, it's those plucky Brits trying to set a new land speed record for a steam-powered car.
Team Steam's never-say-die attitude -- not to mention the endearing quirkiness of using steam as a source of propulsion -- has endeared them to us here at at Autopia. We love these guys, and we're pleased to report it looks like the crew is on the verge of success. The team is setting up the timing equipment and someone from the Federation Internationale d'Automobile -- the sanctioning body of world motorsports -- is on hand to witness the runs that begin today.
At long last, a record that has stood for 103 years may finally fall.
When we last checked in, Team Steam had finally gotten the 25-foot-long car up to full boil -- literally. The car, christened Inspiration, has a complex set up of multiple boilers and getting them all functioning properly has been a bit of a headache. The crew finally has everything right out on the playa. Test driver Don Wales made an exploratory run that hit 131 mph on Aug. 7, comfortably surpassing the record of 127.659 mph Fred Marriott set in 1906 in a Stanley Steamer Rocket.
Since then, the British Steam Car Team has made five test runs in excess of 100 mph. Wales on Saturday achieved a two-way average speed of 137.14 mph with a turnaround time of 48 minutes and 52 seconds. That's well over the pace needed to set a new record and well within the one hour turn around time allotted for their run.
"It was an enourmous achievement on Saturday and one we hope to replicate now that the FIA timing officials have joined us," project manager Matt Candy said in a statement today. "The timing equipment is currently being set up across the 7-mile lakebed. When we left England we knew we had a tough challenge ahead, but we had carried out all the testing we could. Since arriving in the U.S. the team has had to do a lot of preparations to the car with the effects of heat, altitude and the surface conditions... Saturday was a milestone for the team in achieving this goal."
We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, check out all our coverage of the British Steam Car here and see a cool cutaway diagram of the car here. You can get a rundown of the car’s tech here.
Photo: British Steam Car.
