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There’s something endearingly quixotic – and awfully English – about the British Steam Car Challenge. The team has spent the last ten years trying to successfully marry Victorian-age transport with modern technology in an effort break a 100-year-old steam land speed record. And, on Friday August 7 at Edwards Air Force base in California, they finally beat that world record speed with a run of 131mph – but because the FIA wasn’t present, it’s not yet official.
Dubbed ‘the fastest kettle in the world’, the 25-foot British Steam Car is designed not just to break records, but also to reinforce the viability of non-internal combustion engines. Because it’s an external combustion engine, it isn’t fuel specific and produces far fewer harmful emissions.
Instead, the engine has …Â Details
We’ve all want to jump into a car, preferably a car you waved down in the streets and said, “Police emergency, gimme your damn car, goddammit!” and head off down the road crashing into wayward dustbins and fruit stalls. Before embarking on a high speed chase across dust tracks, concrete roads, tarmac’d race tracks, children’s playgrounds. Anything. Smashing up all that gets in your path, including the very old and the very young – especially the very old and the very young – with a flagrant disregard for the rules of the road and the safety of others. Who wouldn’t?
The problem is you’d either be arrested or die. So we live out those fantasies by watching wheel-screeching, metal-grinding, whip-lash inducing, speed-loving car chases…Â Details & the Videos
And you thought the STI-ATV was crazy. Cramming a BMW V12 and a turbocharger into a quad bike wasn’t enough for French bike builder Ludovic Lazareth, he needed more power, so he added ethanol.
Better known as a bio-fuel favored by Iowan farmers; Ethanol, or E85 in this case, has a higher octane rating (typically 100-105) than traditional pump gas, which allows higher compression ratios and more power. The engine actually makes only 350 HP in its current form, with the 150 necessary to take that figure up to 500 HP coming soon in the form of a turbocharger.
There’s no fancy traction or stability control keeping all that power in check, so … Details & Pictures
Red Bull’s New Year, No Limits series is moving from Las Vegas to La-La-Land, and this time it’ll be Travis Pastrana’s turn to try to wow the crowd.
Pastrana will try to break the world record for the longest jump in a car. A handful of Los Angeles landmarks are being considered for the New Year’s Eve stunt by the freestyle motocross star and rally car champion.
Considering that this is the guy who at 15 celebrated an X Games gold medal by jumping his motorcycle into San Francisco Bay, almost anything might go.
Pastrana hopes to shatter the record of 171 feet set by his Subaru teammate, Ken Block, in a rally car in November 2006…Â Details