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If you believed the golden age of steam was in the dim and distant past, think again. This streamlined British supercar that went on a test run at a military airstrip near Chichester last week is about to attempt to smash one of the world’s most enduring records, the highest speed for a steam-driven car. Known as the ‘World’s Fastest Kettle’, the car is being shipped to America where driver Charles Burnett III will make the record attempt across a dried-up lake bed in the Mojave Desert of Southern California in early June.
The steam-car record of 127.659mph was set by American Fred Marriott in 1906 in a machine called the Stanley Steamer.
He tried to break his record a year later but the car hit a rut, flew into the air and shattered when it hit the ground. Marriott was injured and did not make another attempt.
His landmark has remained unchallenged ever since and is the longest-standing officially recognised speed record.
In the early 1900s, steam cars far outsold petrol-driven vehicles because they were faster and more reliable.
But by the time the Stanley Motor Carriage Company ceased operation in 1924, the internal combustion engine had far eclipsed steam technology and the $3,950 Stanley Steamer cost almost eight times as much as the bestselling Ford Model T.
The new car bears little resemblance to the Stanley Steamer. It is made of a mixture of lightweight carbon-fibre composite and aluminium wrapped round a steel chassis and took ten years to develop.
Despite its modern composite construction, the 25ft-long ‘Kettle’ weighs three tons. The sleek bodywork contains 12 boilers with almost two miles of thin metal tubing.
Up to 50 litres per minute of demineralised water is pumped into the boilers and superheated to 400C by burners fuelled by Liquid Petroleum Gas.
The resultant steam is injected into a turbine at more than twice the speed of sound. The turbine shaft drives the car at a speed the designers hope will exceed 170mph. The driver deploys a parachute to help the brakes stop the car.
The picture shows the second of the Kettle’s two test runs at the Ministry of Defence runway at Thorney Island, near Chichester, West Sussex, last week.
Behind the wheel was Don Wales, the 48-year-old nephew of British speed legend Donald Campbell and grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell, who also broke land and water records.
Wales said: ‘The car is so powerful, you can feel the immense force of it. It was just itching to get away.’
However, Charles Burnett III, nephew of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, who founded the National Motor Museum in the New Forest, will drive the car in the record attempt at Rogers Dry Lake Bed, near Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Burnett is already in the Guinness Book Of World Records after setting an offshore water speed record of 137mph ten years ago.
Inside the cockpit
1. Button to switch on the power, after which it shines green
2. Tachometer shows turbine speed in revolutions per minute
3. Brake temperature warning light. Comes on if the brake pads exceed 800C
4. Warning lights working with the satellite navigation system to show if the car is drifting off track and direct the driver left or right
5. Alternator charger light which comes on when the car is not moving, or warns if the alternator stops working
6. Water level warning, which lights up if the water tanks are less than ten per cent full
7. Speedometer, connected to a sensor on the front right wheel
8. Tyre pressure light which shows if the pressure in the Goodyear tyres drops below 65 pounds per square inch
9. Steering wheel shaft where the rod is inserted. The wheel is red and has two buttons, the left one to transmit by radio
10. The right button is covered and operates the parachute
11. Handle used to open the cockpit
High speed is a family tradition
Driver Don Wales carried a St Christopher pendant and a sovereign coin inscribed ‘To Daddy, love Jean’ during the Kettle’s test runs.
The inscription was a message from his mother to her father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, who became world famous in the Twenties and Thirties by breaking the world speed record on land and water a total of 13 times in a series of vehicles named Bluebird.
Sir Malcolm became the first man to drive a car at more than 300mph when he set his final land speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1935. He died following a stroke in 1948, aged 63.
His son Donald, Wales’s uncle, set eight world speed records, including topping 400mph at dried-up Lake Eyre in Australia in 1964.
He was killed at Coniston Water in the Lake District in January 1967 while attempting to break his water speed record of 276.33mph in his Bluebird.
Source:DailyMail
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