A buck forty isn't very fast, but when you're talking about a steam-powered car it's more than enough to shatter the oldest record in all of motorsports.
The British Steam Car team set a new land speed record for a steam-powered car today when Charles Burnett III streaked across the desert in a steam-powered car at a two-way average speed of 139.843 mph. His 25-foot-long car Inspiration easily eclipsed the record Fred Marriott set in 1906 when he went 127.659 mph in a Stanley Steamer Rocket.
"It was absolutely fantastic," Burnett said after the run. "I enjoyed every minute of it."
The picture-perfect run came after 10 years of hard work and several weeks of false starts.
Inspiration had been plagued with mechanical gremlins since Team Steam arrived in the Mojave more than a month ago. The car has a complex set up of multiple boilers and getting them all functioning properly was a colossal headache. Mechanics spent weeks chasing down electrical glitches, faulty water filters and other problems.
Things started looking up earlier this month when test driver Don Wales made a 131-mph run. Five more runs in excess of 100 mph soon followed, and Wales achieved a personal best on Aug. 15 when he hit 137.14 mph. Inspiration was finally at full boil.
Burnett strapped himself into the three-ton car at 7:27 a.m. today and peeled off the best run yet, then topped it with an even better one.
"We reached nearly 140 mph on the first run before I applied the parachute," he said. "All systems worked perfectly, it was a really good run. The second run went even better and we clocked a speed in excess of 150 mph. The car really did handle beautifully."
Under the rules, the team had to complete two runs in opposite directions. Each run had to be one mile long, and both had to be made in less than an hour. The official speed is an average of the two runs. Burnett topped out at 136.103 mph on his first run. The team got the car turned around and ready to go again in 52 minutes. Burnett hit a max speed of 151.085 mph on his second run. Yes, we know that averages 143.594 mph. We're trying to get an explanation from the team.
Here's the thing - the maximum speed doesn't count. The official time is an average of the average speed of each run, which came down to 139.659 mph. The record is still subject to confirmation by the Federation Internationale d'Automobile, which had timing officials there to witness the run. Burnett set the record just two days before the team would have had to throw in the towel and head home.
"I wouldn't like to leave it this close again," Burnett told the BBC. "It was the last but one day we had to do this."
Although a car called the Steamin’ Demon achieved 145.607 during a run in 1985, it isn’t recognized by the FIA, the worldwide sanctioning body of motor sports.
Check out our coverage of Team Steam here and get a look at the car's drivetrain here. BBC has some video of the run here.
UPDATE: 2 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 26: Team Steam answered our question about the average speed; we've updated the post accordingly.
Photo: British Steam Car team
