Speed Record Club

speed on wheels, water and wings

Work in Progress - November 2010

... an extract from FastFacts 79

Contents:
Bonneville 2010
World’s Fastest Sunbeam
World’s Fastest Lawnmower
Flower of Scotland
Angelic Bulldog
Blind Driving
World Electric Records
Bluebird K7
Speed at Scale

Bonneville 2010

With the racing season lasting just three months on the salt flats the organised events and private time mean a packed programme. It also means this year a glut of internationally recognised records for our correspondent ‘Pork Pie’ to cover, as well as National Records and Worlds Best - a full report appears in FastFACTS 79.

The most prestigious record to be broken in 2010 is the outright motorcycle speed now regained by Rocky Robinson riding the Ack Attack streamliner with the average for the mile at 376.156 mph and peaking at 394 mph. Rocky has written for Fast FACTS as an Honorary Member and gives us his first hand account of achieving the new record.

Rocky's full account is in FastFACTS 79

World’s Fastest Sunbeam

After half a decade of development the Sunbeam Tiger, built and driven by Dr Larry Mayfield of Pahrump, Nevada, has become the World’s fastest Sunbeam at 204.912 mph. Taking the title from Henry Segrave who drove the “Slug” (1000 hp Sunbeam) to 203.792 mph in 1927 when he became the first 200 mph club entrant.

See the Mayfield Motorsports website for more.

World’s Fastest Lawnmower

Bob Cleveland has regained the World Record for a lawnmower at 96.529 mph using the 104+ Fuel Treatment US regulated lawnmower. This beats the speed set in May by Don Wales. The team took rolls of grass so that the mower could show its cutting ability on the day.

Speed Scotland Project – “Flower of Scotland”

The aim of the team known as “Speed Scotland” is to enter the Bonneville record books with a 1 litre (61ci) streamliner at speeds which will get the driver into the Bonneville 200 mph Club and the 300 mph Chapter of the Club. Not many UK citizens have travelled under record conditions at speeds on land over 300 mph so either driver (Rick Pearson or Derek Palmer) would be in a select group.

More in FastFACTS 79

Angelic Bulldog

Gabriel Uttley has advised Fast FACTS that progress continues to be made. On the build front they are currently making the final parts for the engine which they have started to assemble. Both the front and rear swing arms have been drawn up and construction has started. The instrument panel is designed and is also being made up. The seat prototype is being modified to be fitted during the last week of October so that the real one can then be made. The rear section of the chassis frame is being constructed as are further sections of the prototype bodywork. Attempts are also being made to get the chassis on wheels ready for forthcoming events.

They are getting regular approaches from companies wanting to help out although there is still a long way to go. Show organisers are beginning to wake up to the project and are now offering stand space which is a big help though time consuming. Gabriel is being asked on a regular basis to give talks and has recently spoken at IMechE Westminster, Kingston University and York University, with Glasgow, Lincoln, Wolverhampton and Swansea lined up for the future. Needless to say, fitting in full time work around this is impossible so Gabriel has given up his full time job and fits in relief work around the project commitments!

Another great coup has been getting the BBC on board who are filming the team as an ongoing project and they also have an independent film producer making a documentary.

More at www.angelicbulldog.org.uk/

Blind Driving

Having shaken off the controversy of allowing sighted people to drive with blanked out visors as though they were unsighted (still allowed by the Guinness Book it seems but no longer attempted), there remains the question of whether a sighted person should sit alongside the blind driver or should the sighted person be in an equally fast vehicle or helicopter tracking the blind driver? In either case, verbal instruction on line, position and braking point are given to the driver by a sighted assistant.

The accompanied land speed record speed for a blind driver is already over 200 mph and was achieved by Hein Wagner who had club member Ray Wakefield alongside him at 200.41 mph. The unaccompanied blind speed is now at 182 mph set by Metin Sentusk in a Ferrari F430 earlier this year and former holder from the UK, bank manager Mike Newman is one of the contenders aiming to take the record away from Metin and surpass 200 mph. His chosen vehicle is a supercar known as the “Keating TKR”. An earlier attempt made on the El Mirage desert was not successful. For 2010 the team behind “Speed of Sight – Journey to 200” chose the sands at Pendine for the attempt and the chase vehicle was to be a low flying helicopter in which father (also a Mike) guided son.

The fastest officially recorded speed under record conditions on Pendine Sands is 218.97 mph by Malcolm Olley in the jet car “Pink Panther” in 1978. Barry Bowles may have travelled quicker but he missed the timing trap when he crashed the “Blonde Bombshell” rocket car.

The team assembled on the beach on 1 August and the owner of the vehicle construction company, Anthony Keating, was at the wheel during a test run at 180 mph to confirm the performance of the car. Reports suggested that it was after hitting a soft patch, when lifting off the throttle, the car spun a full 360 degrees (but did not roll) and was damaged beyond immediate repair as the carbon fibre engine cover ripped off. The team had a Nissan GT-R available but this was not capable of challenging the existing record speed let alone 200 mph barrier. On this occasion Mike left the beach without re-capturing the record but vowing to return for another attempt.

World Electric Records

The “Buckeye Bullet” streamliner team returned to the salt flats with an all electric vehicle this year, much to the relief of the organisers I am sure who had placed the hydrogen fuel cell car of the previous year in almost quarantined conditions.

For 2010 the team were successful on the salt flats with the 692 bhp equivalent “Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5” at an average speed of 307.67 mph across the mile under FIA governance and subject to confirmation by the Records Commission of the World Council. This will have exceeded the Pat Rummerfield, “White Lightening” record of 245 mph achieved in 1999. With their next car, the “Buckeye Bullet 3” (or BB3), the university hope to have a 400 mph contender on the salt flats by 2012. This is the same year that Don Wales and his UK based “Bluebird Electric” team hope to have their all electric contender B3 ready to attempt the record. There is a lot to look out for in the future years with electric zero emission cars and there will be at least two electric motorcycle streamliners aiming for the same number.

Meanwhile in 2010 in France the manufacturer Peugeot celebrated 200 years of business (1810 they made coffee mills, not cars) by building the “EX1 car” which is powered by two electric motors and features four wheel drive. The 340 bhp, under 1000 kg in weight with batteries, two seater roadster may not be the prettiest of cars but with a tear drop shape in plan view (borrowed perhaps from the Mobil Railton Special of John Cobb) around a narrow rear track it certainly functions well enough. At the Linas-Montlhery circuit acceleration records were attempted by driver Nicolas Vanier (a French explorer and film maker). Six standing start acceleration records have been put forward for ratification by the FIA according to press reports, ?mile, ¼ mile, ½ mile, 1 mile, 500 m and 1 kilometre. Three of these records had an existing speed set by rival maker Opel in 1971, but the other distances were ‘open’ records. Further record breaking by the team in their double centenary year is expected to follow in the endurance category.

Bluebird K7

The restoration work has reached the stage where the spaceframe is now being clad with panels, most formed from the original material. The volunteer team led by Bill Smith are now able to use a greater amount of recovered material than originally expected. There is always some loss of original fabric (LOOF) with any restoration project but the Bluebird Project LOOF bucket remains small.

Some of the recovered original material and parts which divers brought ashore in 1967 is in private hands and collections and is unlikely to be returned for incorporation into the vessel. The sponsons were destroyed and other items have been scrapped.

If you wish to keep up to date with progress go to www.bluebirdproject.com where there is a forum for discussions on a range of related topics.

Speed at Scale – Real Speed

In Fast FACTS 78 there was a report of the 1/32 scale “Scaletrix” Land Speed Record event held at Haynes Motor Museum where the actual speeds witnessed at about 40 mph are “scaled” up to give impressive figures. Club member Fred Barthelemy from France has written to the editor about the serious form of the sport – 1/24 high power vehicles. A full article will appear in a future issue. Some of the statistics for slot car drag racing (which is a precursor to land speed racing at scale) are already very impressive. Please note the speeds which follow are those actual recorded, they are not extrapolated from the scale up to full size. The World Record elapsed time on a scaled drag strip is an ET of 0.409 seconds and a terminal velocity of 136.4 mph. The car builders use cobalt magnet motors pulling 300 amps. The European best on a drag strip scalextric track is from Malta with an ET of 0.430 seconds at a speed of 126.0 mph. A LSR track with an actual length of 1000 ft is planned, but requires serious funding and here the fastest cars could match Don Vesco’s 458 mph ..... for real!