Land Speed Racing

[JohnBM01]

Any racer's dream is to go faster and faster. You know, you get that thrill of going fast especially as someone inexperienced. I don't know if any of you all in America, but can you remember a Castrol commerical from a few years ago in which a machine called the Thrust SCC speedfreaking all across this desert area. Top speeds are pretty fast. No, not 200 mph. I think I heard of 300+ mph.

Got something to share on land speed? Let 'er rip here, player.

 

[daan]

... in which a machine called the Thrust SCC speedfreaking all across this desert area. Top speeds are pretty fast. No, not 200 mph. I think I heard of 300+ mph.

300? What are you on about? Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record at 763.035mph. That is faster than the speed of sound.

 

[Will.c]

Thrust SSC and Thrust 2 are about a 30 minute walk from here
In a museum obviously. they used to let you sit inside Thrust 2, but not anymore for some reason.

They have a simulator thing with a big screen and you sit inside it and it plays the onboard video of the car going for the record, with noises and shakes and things. All pretty exciting stuff. obviously nowhere near what it would be like doing it for real, but good fun

 

[Blake]

The Dodge Thomohawk concept alledgedly does over 400mph, so 300 sounds really low.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Yeah, the thrust 2 was the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. So 300mph is a very low guess.

 

[daan]

Yeah, the thrust 2 was the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. So 300mph is a very low guess.

No, that was Thrust SSC. The SSC stands for SuperSonic Car.

Thrust 2 only managed 633mph.

 

[Cosmic]

The Dodge Thomohawk concept alledgedly does over 400mph, so 300 sounds really low.

And that's impossible to sit on it when you are driving it in 400mph.

 

[Blake]

Tie your hands to the handles and just get towed

 

[JohnBM01]

Note I said "300+." I think this is more insane than NHRA Drag Racing. Those things can FLY!

 

[DQuaN]

The word 'car' is a bit of a loose term. It is pretty much a huge jet engine on wheels. Or, in the case of the SSC, two huge jet engines on wheels!!

 

[Will.c]

Plus it can only realy go in straight lines, and it doesn't have very good milage, and the boot space is too small, the interior is nasty and smells of jet fuel, it only comes in one choice of colour and is useless at taking the kids to school. a shocking example of a car

seriously though what would qualify as a car in these land speed things.. I bet you could push it and enter a Jet plane.. it has wheels!

 

[DQuaN]

It's a bit like the Aircraft speed record. I think officially it is held by the SR71 Blackbird at around mach 3.high. Unofficially it is held by the X-15 at around mach 5. Athough it is hard to class the X-15 as an aircraft. More like a rocket with a cockpit!!

 

[TheCracker]

Plus it can only realy go in straight lines, and it doesn't have very good milage, and the boot space is too small, the interior is nasty and smells of jet fuel, it only comes in one choice of colour and is useless at taking the kids to school. a shocking example of a car

I bet it still gets better fuel milage, and is easyer to manouver than a HUMMER H2

 

[Will.c]

I bet it still gets better fuel milage, and is easyer to manouver than a HUMMER H2

That's the one with the flashing lights on the top isn't it.. or somthing similar.
I remember seeing it on Top gear, in all it's bright yellow glory

 

[DQuaN]

Yup, cruisin gets you 4-5 mpg. And if you floor it, 1 mpg!!!

 

[zoxxy]

And if you floor it, 1 mpg!!!

And 1 mile takes about 0,0004 sek

 

[TheCracker]

And 1 mile takes about 0,0004 sek

...what, in a H2??????

...more like 60 seconds, or if off-road - however long it takes a tow-truck to pull it for a mile.

 

[DQuaN]

Maybe if you push it off a mile high skyscraper

 

[Will.c]

by the weight of it, going off a sky-scraper it would probably go super-sonic..
(spot attempt at going back on topic )

 

[DQuaN]

Weight has nothing to do with it. If you dropped a bowling ball and a Hummer at the same time, the ball would probably hit the ground first. It's lighter but more aerodynamic. The Hummer has the same aerodynamic characteristics as a brick and would probably have quite a low terminal velocity.

Famine...............?

 

[Will.c]

Depends on the difference in weight i think. even though the bowling ball is more aerodynamic the hummers extra weight would mean it would keep accelerating for a long time.
But then i'm not sure, and probably just rambling

 

[DQuaN]

Wrong i'm afraid. The difference in mass between the bowling ball and the hummer is massive, but when compaired to the mass of Earth they are very close. Its all about wind resitance. Do you remember the experiment when an astronaught on one of the Apollo missions pulled out a hammer and a feather on the moon.. He dropped both at the same time and, as there was no air resistance, both landed at the same time.

I am pretty sure about this anyway.

Famine.........? Help!

 

[Nasadus]

I watched that video on Discovery Channel,when they broke the sound barrier and i always wondered.If they managed 700+ mp/h with two jet engines,why not attach 4 or more jet engines on there.That thing would blast past the 1000 mp/h before you know it.There's probably a flaw in my logic somwhere and a reason why it hasn't been done yet.Anyone care to elaborate.

 

[DQuaN]

It would probably become to unstable. There is a massive amount of drag when you are pushing along the ground. Also, even though the ground is very flat, if it were to hit a bump of only 2 or 3mm at over 1000mph. The results would be catastrophic. Plus even the salt flats might not be big enought to accomodate those sorts of speeds.

 

[Will.c]

oh yah. I remember that.

 

[High-Test]

Car and Driver took a toyota prius to the bonneville salt flats and got it to go 134 mph. I didn't even know the prius could break 100.

 

[Blake]

Hell, that's pretty damn fast for a prius!

 

[DQuaN]

I wonder what the fastest non-jet engined car was

 

[Will.c]

At a guess i would say that bluebird one.. but that's only because i got one from a cornflakes offer once and it's the only other one i can remember

 

[daan]

I wonder what the fastest non-jet engined car was

Who knows?

Bluebird, Goldenrod, Don Veso or Al Teague

I don't know how accurate this page is, but it's interesting nonetheless

http://www.ugofadini.com/lsrwdold.html