Land Speed Record?
Rick Riper
Question: What's the current land speed record?
I tried to find out at my local library, but the best source I could
find was a book published in 1981. Here's what it shows:
739.67 mph By Stan Barrett in a liquid fuel rocket car sponsered
by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
If anyone has any newer info I would like to know. I want to include
a question on the land speed record in a set of trivia questions that
I'm preparing for a Cub Scout Pinewood Derby event.
Thanks!
*****************************************************************************
Rick Riper | PROGRAM n. A magic spell cast over a computer
Hewlett-Packard Co. | allowing it to turn one's input into error
Corvallis Division | messages. tr.v. To engage in a pastime similar to
Corvallis, OR USA | banging one's head against a wall, but with fewer
r...@hp-pcd.cv.hp.com | opportunities for reward. (from Borland mailer)
*****************************************************************************
P. J. Remner
In a previous article, r...@hpcvmcdj.cv.hp.com (Rick Riper) says:
>
>739.67 mph By Stan Barrett in a liquid fuel rocket car sponsered
> by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
>
"The Blue Flame", powered by natural gas. Too bad hat it wasn't
official. (It was at Daytona, and the timing lights weren't
calibrated.)
>600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
> Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
>
Not anymore. I forgot the name, but the record is now 622.??
>409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
> Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
>
Yup.
--
aj...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Peter "Lizard King" Remner)
I bought me an illusion and I put it on the wall
I let it fill my head with dreams and I had to have them all...
Sharen A. Rund
>
>
This question should have been directed to rec.autos.sport - they should
know the answers better
>Question: What's the current land speed record?
>
>I tried to find out at my local library, but the best source I could
>find was a book published in 1981. Here's what it shows:
>
>
I believe the land speed record was just set by Al Tighe (sp?)
Al Bowers
>In a previous article, r...@hpcvmcdj.cv.hp.com (Rick Riper) says:
>>739.67 mph By Stan Barrett in a liquid fuel rocket car sponsered
>> by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
> "The Blue Flame", powered by natural gas. Too bad hat it wasn't
> official. (It was at Daytona, and the timing lights weren't
> calibrated.)
Wrong. Muroc Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was a
one way pass and so does not count. If you don't play by the rules,
you don't get to win. This was strictly a publicity stunt to break
the sound barrier on the ground. Timing was done by Air Force radar
(not acceptable). The vehicle was steam powered and the distance was
not the required 1 mile or 1 kilometer (instantaneous maximum
velocity).
>>600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
>> Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
> Not anymore. I forgot the name, but the record is now 622.??
The 622 mph speed was the old one, by Gary Gabelich in the "Blue
Flame" at Bonneville. Set in the early '70s. Current record by a
group of British enthusiasts (something like 630 mph?). Sorry for the
sketchy info...
>>409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
>> Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
> Yup.
Still the fastest wheel powered car.
Note that Harley Davidson recently upped the record for motorcycles
from 318 mph to 320+mph (can't recall). Old record by Don Vesco in a
4 engined Kawasaki streamliner.
--
"Forward, those sick of overadvertised and nastily-made tin
boxes! Viva Italia!" -Henry N. Manney III
Albion Hideto Bowers bow...@rigel.dfrf.nasa.gov Al Bowers
Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido Alfa Romeo GTV6 Ducati MHR (DOD #900)
Mart Molle
>>
>>Question: What's the current land speed record?
>>
>>I tried to find out at my local library, but the best source I could
>>find was a book published in 1981. Here's what it shows:
>>
>> by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
>>
>>600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
>> Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
>>
>>409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
>> Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
sha...@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com (Sharen A. Rund) writes:
>I believe the land speed record was just set by Al Tighe (sp?)
I looked it up in the Guinness Book of World Records, 1991 edition, and
found the following:
Jet Powered: 633.468 mph By Richard Noble (UK) in Thrust2
at Black Rock Desert NV, 1983
[This beats Craig Breedlove...]
Rocket Powered: 622.287 mph By Gary Gabelich (USA) in Blue Flame
at Bonnevile UT, 1970
Wheel Driven...
--Turbine: 429.311 mph By Donald Campbell (UK) in Bluebird
at Lake Eyre, Australia, 1964
--Multi Piston Engine: 418.504 By Robert Summers (USA) in Goldenrod
at Bonneville UT, 1965
[A return later in the year????]
--Single Piston Engine: 397.996 By Al Teague (USA) in Speed O Motive
at Bonneville UT, November 1989
[I guess this is what Sharen Rund was thinking of...]
They also talk about the Budweiser Rocket at 739.666, but call it an
"unofficial" record, with the following footnote:
``This published speed of Mach 1.0106 is *not* officially sanctioned
by the USAF whose Digital Instrumented Radar was neither calibrated
or certified. The radar information was *not* generated by the
vehicle directly, but by an operator aiming the dish by means of a
TV screen. To claim a speed to size significant figures appears
unsustainable.''
BTW, I found some other records buried in the chapter, namely:
Diesel Powered: 203.3 mph by the Mercedes C111/3 prototype at Nardo Italy,
in 1978
Electric Powered: ``The land-speed record was last broken by an electric
car [...] in 1899 with a speed of 65.79 mph.'' (In 1989,
it was beaten by a replica of the 1899 car, at a speed of
67.62 mph -- looks like an easy record for somebody on the
net to go after! :-))
Steam Powered: 145.607 mph by Robert Barber in Steamin' Demon in 1985
(previous record was set 79 years earlier...)
Mart L. Molle
Computer Systems Research Institute
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
(416)978-4928
Brent Allen Peterson
>
>>
>>739.67 mph By Stan Barrett in a liquid fuel rocket car sponsered
>> by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
>>
> "The Blue Flame", powered by natural gas. Too bad hat it wasn't
> official. (It was at Daytona, and the timing lights weren't
> calibrated.)
>
campus) and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dept. The Blue flame
was built by reaction dynamics of Wis. The car set the land speed record
of 622.407 mph. This was the average of two runs in opposite directions
made on Oct 23, 1970 at Bonneville Salt flats, Utah. The car was driven by
Gary Gabelich. It was produced 22,000lb of thrust (58,000 hp eqvialent.)
As I remember the Blue Flame was not run at full trottle when the record
was set. Also it held its record for longer than any other vehicle. I dont
remember what the current record is (632??) but I know its not much more
than the Blue flame's. Car & Driver had an article not too long ago
about the different vehicles that have held the land speed record so
those interested might want to find that issue. As far as the bud car goes
I believe that it is not an offical record because it only made one run.
Chris Craddock
|> In article <5200...@hpcvmcdj.cv.hp.com> r...@hpcvmcdj.cv.hp.com (Rick Riper) writes:
|> >
|> >
|> This question should have been directed to rec.autos.sport - they should
|> know the answers better
|>
|> >Question: What's the current land speed record?
|>
|> > by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
Unofficial due to a stuff up in the timeing equipment. Kinda annoying if you've
just risked your butt at close to the speed of sound, without the aid of wings :O(
|> >600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
|> > Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
Art Arfons beat this mark and raised it to 622 ish, which, I believe is the
official world record. The 'car' was a jet powered beast called the 'Green Monster'
Later, Gary Gabelich (sp?) moved the mark up around 700 in a rocket powered car
called the 'Blue Flame'.
A wild eyed Brit called Richard Noble had a go at getting the record in a thing
called Sonic 1 - no prizes for guessing what he was shooting for... I have no
clue whether he actually managed to get the record.
|> >409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
|> > Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
A truly amazing beast with four (yes, count 'em, four!) Chrysler Hemi V8s.
|> >If anyone has any newer info I would like to know. I want to include
|> >a question on the land speed record in a set of trivia questions that
|> >I'm preparing for a Cub Scout Pinewood Derby event.
Back in the days of Malcolm Campbell, Sir Henry Segrave and others, the world
LSR was A BIG DEAL (tm). Later, as cars became faster, more capable and more
reliable the interest waned. Also, the fact that planes are so much faster has
caused people to lose interest in the LSR. By the time Craig Breedlove started
trying to raise the mark in the 60s, only Sir Donald Campbell of Britain was
regularly setting records. Until the mid 60s, the record required the vehicle
to be wheel driven (i.e. power transmitted via the driving wheels) which made
all of the early jet powered cars ineligible anyway.
Chris
--
"That's the problem with nature, something's always stinging you
or oozing mucous all over you. Let's go and watch TV" - Calvin
cr...@hal.com HaL Computer Systems Inc.
(408) 379-7000 x1163 1315 Dell Ave. Campbell CA 95008
Sharen A. Rund
>> r...@hpcvmcdj.cv.hp.com (Rick Riper) writes:
>>>
>>>Question: What's the current land speed record?
>>>
>
>sha...@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com (Sharen A. Rund) writes:
>
>>I believe the land speed record was just set by Al Tighe (sp?)
>
>
> at Bonneville UT, November 1989
> [I guess this is what Sharen Rund was thinking of...]
>
set another "unofficial" record in the past couple of months
Also, I have a bit of trivia: there was an avid fan of Bonneville who's
greatest wish was to run it - he died a year ago last October and a friend
This past August, his wife and a group of friends took the urn with
his ashes to Bonnevile, where one of the drivers (who was a friend)
put the urn in his car and kept it there during the race
They later flew over Bonneville and scattered his ashes
Gerry Swetsky
>They also talk about the Budweiser Rocket at 739.666, but call it an
>"unofficial" record, with the following footnote:
>
> ``This published speed of Mach 1.0106 is *not* officially sanctioned
> by the USAF whose Digital Instrumented Radar was neither calibrated
> or certified. The radar information was *not* generated by the
> vehicle directly, but by an operator aiming the dish by means of a
> TV screen. To claim a speed to size significant figures appears
> unsustainable.''
It would seem easy enough to figure out if the rocket acheived a
speed above mach 1. Sonic booms are difficult to ignore. I
realize that the exact speed cannot be determined from a sonic
boom, but I would have thought they would have noted whether or not
it occurred.
--
============================================================================
| Help stamp out stupid .signature files! Gerry Swetsky WB9EBO |
| vpnet - Public access Unix and Usenet |
| Home (708)833-8122 vpnet (708)833-8126 lis...@vpnet.chi.il.us |
============================================================================
Ken A. Irwin
>
>>
>>739.67 mph By Stan Barrett in a liquid fuel rocket car sponsered
>> by Budweiser, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
>>
> "The Blue Flame", powered by natural gas. Too bad hat it wasn't
> official. (It was at Daytona, and the timing lights weren't
> calibrated.)
No, sorry the Blue Flame was not "powered" by natural gas, it was started with
propane. The "natural gas" thing referes to the propane starting and the name
"Blue Flame" is from one of its major sponsors; Northern Illinois Gas Company.
The last record the Blue Flame held was somthing like 623... over the flying
mile at Bonneville, it hit a maximum clocked speed of just over 650. I believe
the car did attain another record after that, but under a different name. The
car was very capable of higher speeds but the story at the time was that
transonic speeds at ground level were unpredictable.
>>600.60 mph By Craig Breedlove, fastest jet engine car. 1965 in the
>> Spirit of America - Sonic I at Bonneville
>>
> Not anymore. I forgot the name, but the record is now 622.??
If nothing else Craig still gets credit for his 6 mile skidmarks.
>>409.27 mph By Bob Summers, fastest internal-combustion engine car.
>> Goldenrod, 1965 at Bonneville
>
> Yup.
--
Ken A. Irwin ir...@motcid.rtsg.mot.com
...!uunet!motcid!irwin ...!att!ihplt!kai
Motorola RTSG, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 (708) 632-5528