Using no jets and no special fuels, the company is attempting this feat in the Spectre SpeedLiner, a sleek missile-shaped speeder with an 8.8-liter Cadillac engine with a pair of intercooled 88 mm turbos good for close to 2000 HP. So while this isn't exactly, or even remotely, a street car, it is attempting to show just how far a gas-powered car can be pushed. We'll let you know when, or if, the record is made.

Godspeed.

The fastest tea kettle in the world managed a top speed of 131MPH at California's Edwards Air Force Base on the dry lake bed there, with the LPG fired mini-boilers and 360 HP Curtis turbine engine working exactly as planned. In the long run, the team is aiming at crushing the record of 127.66 mph­ set in 1906 with a top speed of 150 MPH. At the moment though, the team must await certification of top speed by the FIA, which requires two runs within an hour to certify the record, and should be going on as of this writing. Good luck chaps, and blow a lot of hot air. [CNET]

Photo credit The British Steam Car Challenge

Full press release:

Quantum-Jesse James Team Shatters the Land Speed World Record for a Hydrogen Powered Vehicle

IRVINE, California, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:QTWW) today announced that its advanced gaseous fuel injectors, fuel metering components, lightweight fuel storage system and powertrain engineering expertise successfully supported Jesse James in shattering the land speed record for a hydrogen powered vehicle. On June 16, 2009, Jesse James clocked 199.712 mph in the hydrogen 'Streamliner' at El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert, to beat the world record holder, the BMW H2R, which had attained 186 mph in Germany. This historic event will be shown as the season one finale of "Jesse James Is A Dead Man" premiering on Sunday, August 9 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on Spike TV.

"Jessie James approached Quantum for our world-class expertise in hydrogen and advanced powertrain engineering," explained Alan P. Niedzwiecki, the President and CEO of Quantum. "This, I honestly believe, is world-changing," Jesse James said of the emissions-free race car. "We can't rely on gasoline forever. I'm paying it forward."

Jesse James' record setting run was supported by 24 Quantum hydrogen injectors that fuelled an 8-cylinder engine that was optimized to yield 704 HP. Quantum's patented fuel injector has been designed, tested and validated specifically for precision fuel metering and durable service with cleaner burning, dry gaseous fuels such as hydrogen and natural gas. With several years of R&D, Quantum's gaseous fuel injectors are featured in Ford's hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles and Prius and Escape hydrogen hybrid electric vehicles developed by Quantum.

The record-breaking Streamliner was fitted with 3 ultra-light weight, advanced carbon-fiber composite, polymer-lined 5000 psi Quantum hydrogen storage cylinders to help with vehicle performance and drivability. Quantum has supplied some of the lightest hydrogen cylinders in the world for weight-critical automotive and aerospace applications. Quantum has developed industry-leading 3600 psi natural gas on-board storage cylinders, and 5,000 and 10,000 psi hydrogen storage cylinders and related valves and pressure management systems.

The initial development of Jesse James' Streamliner was performed at Quantum's Advanced Vehicle Concepts Center in Lake Forest California. This facility is equipped with all disciplines and capabilities to take advanced powertrains and vehicles including hybrids, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen, and natural gas vehicles, from concept to production. Over the past decade, Quantum's expert team has developed and built 20,000 natural gas vehicles, 2,000 hydrogen and hybrid systems and vehicles, as an OEM, and also in partnerships with world's leading auto makers. Quantum has designed advanced hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and powertrains for the US Army, and for Fisker Automotive, for the award winning Fisker KARMA, a luxury plug-in-hybrid car that was introduced at the Detroit International Auto Show in January, 2008.

That's right, Jalopnik Book Reviews are in the house, and I'll do my best to make this a regular weekend feature. If it's printed and has something to do with cars, we might be reviewing it here- shop manuals to NASCAR romance novels!

We're going to start off this series with a book about a subject that had damn well better be dear to the hearts of all our readers: Mickey Thompson. Thompson's 1964 memoir, Challenger, should be considered a 27-alarm must-read (well worth the crazy high price tag for a used copy; that's my read-50-times thrift-store copy on the left), with its accounts of the 1953 and 1954 Carrera Panamerica races alone being worth the cost. However, Challenger was written only halfway through MT's career, and he was too sharp a businessman not to make his memoir a masterpiece of promotional spin for his various endeavors. Especially maddening is the lack of detail concerning Thompson's revolutionary Indy 500 cars, which were still works-in-progress during the writing of Challenger.

Erik Arneson's Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life And Tragic Death Of A Racing Legend tells the whole MT story, from his early days of salt-flat madness and drag racing innovation, through the speed-parts and indoor off-road-racing businesses, to his murder and 20-year pursuit of the former business partner who was convicted of the hit in 2007.

This book gets an excellent Jalopnik Four Rod Rating™, thanks to the clarity of Arneson's writing style and the fascinating subject matter, but that rating comes with a caveat: the serious MT fan will emerge from the book wanting more. This book is attempting to be two books in one: biography of an innovative genius who revolutionized just about every field he entered, and true-crime/pursuit-of-justice account. Unfortunately for geeked-out gearheads like me, the focus on the kind of man MT was and the trial of Mike Goodwin comes at the expense of the mechanical stuff we want to know about.



For example, check out this photo showing a detail of the 406-MPH, quadra-Pontiac-engined Challenger's drivetrain. The chains! The gears! How did this setup work? What was it like to build? Now multiply that by ten thousand and you can sense the dilemma of trying to do justice to the engineering and fabrication übergod that was Mickey Thompson. The main sources for the book were Thompson's relatives, particularly his son, Danny, and thus it tends to heavy on the "Mickey was a great guy" and "Goodwin is pure pond scum" stuff while being light on the engineering and business-of-motorsports innovation Thompson accomplished. That's not to say that the story of the hunt for the killers of Mickey and Trudy Thompson doesn't make for fascinating reading, of course, but elsewhere… well, I'd be willing to swap the three pages of description of Thompson's house on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for another three pages on the building of the Carrera Panamerica cars, for example.


Fortunately, there's ample material on MT's Indianapolis 500 efforts of the mid-1960s. While bad luck kept his mid-engined, Buick aluminum 215-powered cars from serious contention, they marked the beginning of the end for the old front-engined Offenhauser-powered Indy cars, and Thompson designed everything from the chassis to the tires themselves. Later on, Thompson managed to find a way to turn Baja-style off-road racing into a profitable indoor spectator sport, and the twists and turns of the SCORE series make for interesting reading for students of the business of racing. Like I said, a Four-Rod Rating™. Murilee says check it out!

[Motorbooks]

On a low speed run, Don Wales, grandson of speed record legend Sir Malcolm Campbell tested it's LPG fired mini-boilers and 360 HP Curtis turbine engine, even testing the automatic shut down systems with great success.

The record-breaking run is planned for next summer and the team is working to secure the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force base to make their attempt. The previous FIA-recognized steam-powered land-speed record is 127.66 mph­, set in 1906 (the unofficial version is 145.607 MPH) and in June the team was aiming at 150 MPH to break the record, but now apparently they're more confident and have set their sights on a whopping 170 MPH. With steam! That baby's blowing a lot of hot air (and water vapor). [Telegraph]

So far, the Bloodhound project has received a donated Eurojet EJ200 fighter jet engine that should propel the car to about the 300 MPH mark. At that point a "hybrid" rocket will take over boosting the vehicle to the 1000 MPH point — and beyond. Of course, the whole Bloodhound will be a hybrid — a jet/rocket hybrid. That's the kind of green engineering we can get behind. [AutoMotto] (Hat tip to Matthew!)

Dearest D.B. Fans and Fanatics:
It has been done!
I have just returned from the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, where I set the all-time Land Speed Record for a Grand Touring Sports Car under 750cc (this class is known as GT/J). I accomplished this in “BoneEvil,” my 1959 D.B. HBR-5 (#1025) which has a very special, raced prepared 747cc engine. For your interest, attached are two photos of the car (and me) on the salt.
Racing at Bonneville presents many problems and challenges for the little cars we all love. First, the temperature during the day can be as high as 110 degrees which the air-cooled two-banger is not so fond of. Second, the effective altitude is 7700 feet above sea level and setting carburetion can be tricky. Third, racing on salt presents challenges in regards to traction and tire slippage. The course I ran on is called the Short Course and is 3 miles in length. The speed recorded is not the top speed attained but is the average speed sustained between the 2nd and 3rd mile markers. In order to break a record, you must have a successful Qualifying Run which betters the existing record. The car is then placed in Impound with a sealed gas tank. The following morning you must make a successful Record Run (also known as the Backup Run) and again beat the existing record for a second time. The existing record for GT/J has stood at 80.143 MPH since 1991. I believe the previous record holder was a Honda two-seater.
During my Qualifying Run I averaged 93.070 MPH. During my Record Run I averaged 94.918 MPH. The new Land Speed Record is the average of the two and is 93.994 MPH. As you can see, we did not simply beat the old record…we crushed it!
Breaking this record has been a dream of mine for many years and I could not have accomplished this without the help of many people. When I made the decision to move forward in 2006 I had a small problem…I did not own an HBR-5. I called all of my D.B. friends in the U.S. but did not have any luck finding a car. Then I called Junkman who had two HBR-5’s in his collection. Junkman is a huge D.B. fan and was not at all interested in selling either of his cars. That is until Junkman found out what I had in mind! He loved the idea of a D.B. running at Bonneville and immediately sold me the car (at a very, very fair price!). Junkman is a fantastic guy and I am forever grateful for all of his support. Thanks Junkman!
There are many, many others who have helped me along the way. Obtaining parts is always a problem for those of us in The USA and Derek Fritz was with our team every step of the way, offering technical assistance and getting us the parts we needed in a timely fashion. Thanks Derek! Richard Plavetich was restoring his own (now gorgeous) HBR-5 and brought us parts back from his trip to France. Don Racine and JeanPierre Molerus have been wonderful friends and advisors along the way and gave us the info and parts we needed every time we called on them. For years, Bill Barkley has run all over the USA for all of us and has filled my warehouse full of spares. Thanks Bill! Finally, Raymond Milo has been our spiritual advisor and chief critic throughout the project. There is only one Raymond and I am definitely glad to have him on our team.
There are too many others in the D.B. Club who have helped me along the way to mention but to all of you…THANKS!
When I decided to make a record attempt my mechanics first reaction was…”You want to do what?!?!?!” And this was certainly logical.
From a practical standpoint, it really made little sense to go for the record in a 50 year old car. After all, the Grand Touring Sport Class is not a vintage class. It is open to any and all modern two-seaters with an engine under 750cc. But this is precisely why I wanted to break the record in a D.B. As each of you know, Deutsch Bonnet has a legendary race history which includes class wins at Le Mans in ‘53, ‘54, ’55, ‘56, ‘59 and ’60, five consecutive class wins at the Mille Miglia (1953 through 1957), class wins at Sebring in ’53, ’54, ’56 and ’59, at the Tourist Trophy in ’53 and ’55, and class wins at the Nürburgring 1000KMS in ’59 and ’60.
But was it possible to break a land speed record in a Deutsch Bonnet 50 years later? Could it be that the HBR-5 was the fastest under 750cc Grand Touring Sports Car of all time…including modern cars? This was what our team set out to accomplish.
My Chief Mechanic, Greg Lucas, has literally thousands of hours into Panhard engine development. And nearly every internal engine component is special. Our crankshafts are of one-piece billet. The roller bearing is a two-piece design as is the big end of the rods. The valve train and heads have been developed to the extreme. Greg has done an unbelievable job and in my opinion is a world authority on Panhard engines and mechanicals. When I first met Greg 8 years ago, he hardly knew what a Panhard was. But he’s a brilliant guy, a quick study, and with the help of Don Racine and my great friend Alva Rodriguez, who is sadly not here to see this, Greg is now a Panhard Jedi Warrior. His 747cc engines make 48HP at the front wheels (probably 65 HP at the flywheel) and will rev to an honest 10,000 RPM’s.
Greg also assembled a winning team to help us along the way. Mark Evans has been with us every step of the way. Mark not only “massaged” the 50 year old fiberglass body and painted the car; he did much of the fabrication and prep work. He was also with us at Bonneville, getting things ready, driving the push-truck, etc. We could not have done this without Mark. Jeff Gee has also been an important part of the team. Jeff is not only a wonderful fabricator, he is also the shops psychologist…keeping things calm whenever engines scattered parts. Dan Barton is an engine guy extraordinaire and helped our team time and time again. He was also responsible for critical machine and head work on the engines. Walt Bobo, Mike Hart, Tom Thrash and many, many others have wandered in and out of Greg’s shop offering advice and support along the way. Mike Miller did the wonderful airbrush work on the car.
Our team will be continue to make trips to Bonneville to try and go faster and faster to push the 750cc record over 100 MPH. We also have plans to make an attempt for the under 1000cc record in the car. So stay tuned for more records from BoneEvil. It will be up to historians looking back to determine the relative importance of this Land Speed Record in the context of D.B.’s past victories. It is interesting to note that D.B.’s victories in the 1950s were against contemporary cars of similar technological development. What we now have in this 50 year old car is an all-time Land Speed Record holder.
Have fun and drive fast! Mark Brinker
Houston, Texas

A run average of 298.507 KPH (185.5 MPH) bested the previous record by 14 KPH (8.7 MPH). Taruffi hoped to use this record to segue into a sponsorship for a car with a similar design to run in the the Indianapolis 500, but we found no evidence that ever happened. Still, a darn interesting car and some neat history. [Jalopy Journal]

At the helm will be Don Wales, grandson of none other than land speed record legend Sir Malcolm Campbell (who we've mentioned before). The team and the car will be making their way over to the Bonneville salt flats this summer to make an attempt fraught with sky-high blowing-up peril, but we image it'll be a good show. PopMech has the full story, and we're sure to hear more soon. [Popular Mechanics]

Assuming you meet the qualifications (between 20 and 40 years of age, photogenic and lacking in dependents) you can apply by sending headshots and a 400-word email with your winning story to landspeedracing at gmail dot com. Note that you'll be fighting against Braff for the position.

[DoDevice, Landspeed.com]

All of this was carried out at the Hollomon Air Force Base High Speed Test Track in New Mexico, where the 846th Test Squadron does their thing. Apparently, the test track can go up to mach 12, though they haven't thought of a reason to go that fast... yet. [The Register]
(Photo Courtesy Of Air Force, Previous Rocket Test)

In the shops back in England, work was progressing on a long, low spike of steely resolve called the Golden Arrow. Segrave, having shattered the records, set his sights on doing it again with a totally different approach. Instead of only brute power and mechanical fortitude, the new J.S. Irving design focused more on slicing a clean hole in the air. Of course, brute power didn't leave the scene. The engines in the Sunbeam 1000 produced a combined 1000 hp, whereas the single 24 liter, W12 Napier Lion aero engine in the Golden Arrow would produce 930 horsepower on its own. The body may have been the first to take advantage of aerodynamics by way of underbody shaping, generating 450 lbs of downforce at speed. When completed, the car was packed up and shipped to Daytona Beach. Segrave made two test runs at up to 180 mph and set his hood's telescopic sights on a record attempt. On March 29, 1929, in front of 100,000 spectators, Segrave crushed Keech's record with a run of 231.56 mph. With only about 20 miles under its belt, the car had set a record that would stand for nearly two years. Upon returning to England, Segrave was Knighted for his feats of daring. Unfortunately, this would be the last land speed record Sir Henry would ever attain. After this triumph, he turned his eyes to setting speed records on the water. He died shortly thereafter, in an accident in that pursuit—during which, of course he had achieved a run of 96.76 mph. In 1930, the Segrave Trophy was established in his memory. It is awarded annually to the Briton who demonstrates the most outstanding achievement on land, at sea or in the air.

This Jalopnik correspondent was there, and witnessed the feat with a smattering of motor journos and sundry members of the proper Fourth Estate. Also among those gathered was a blind hippie named Danny Jo, who felt the shock waves through the toes on his bare feet.

The following is excerpted from INFINITY OVER ZERO, and is a chronicling of Green's epic feat from ten years ago today:

RUN SIXTY-FIVE

They see something and then they hear it. Puffs of smoke off in the distance and then an audible blast out of the jet engines' tailpipes. Empirical — and sensory — confirmation that light is faster than sound. Ernst Mach would be proud.

Members of the SSC support team are standing by in Supacats. They are aborigines gathered around a fire.

"The car is beginning to yaw," Andy Green says, a master of understatement. He is coming towards the Supacats, slightly weaving between parallel white lines. It appears to the observers, however, this machine is coming from an arc. It is empirical confirmation that the earth is round.

He manhandles ten tons of machinery back into the proper groove and passes through the measure mile at 763 mph. Boom. Boom. Windows rattle at Bruno's and glasses on the bar wiggle. A shot glass is knocked off the bar and breaks.

"Man, that was hard work," Andy Green reports through his mask.

At Mile 13.5, the support team turns the beast around and packs the parachutes, replenishes the fuel and interfaces the starter motor, spinning the turbine blades and injecting voltage and kerosene. The moment is nigh. Back to back, baby. Supermotherfuckingsonic.

THE DESERT EXHALES (RUN SIXTY-SIX)

"SSC ready to roll ... SSC is rolling ..." Andy Green keys his mic and leaves it open... (inhale) ... SSC slowly creeps up to a 100 mph ... a very careful, calculated application of thrust ... the white line fades ... (inhale) "two good nozzles, looking for max ..." (exhale) the afterburners glow with an orange flame... "350...jeez-us" "450..keep your foot down..." (inhale) ... compressed molecules of air pile up against the massive black missile of a marital aid like football players running in place against the closed door of a locker room... the winds begin to howl as Mach's Demon spreads his wings ... (inhale) even with the "bravery switch" the winds are deafening when molecules of air come together and create a unique form of primordial intelligence ... Green continues driving the shit out of it, giving it rudder while grunting in his brainbucket's headset, a measured breathing, phone sex for the supersonic set......in the measured mile the shaman closes his eyes, which is redundant as he is already blind, but whatever...

Andy Green is giving 'er full rudder at 700 mph... the machine has yawed off course and the steering yoke is pointed completely vertically...

NEGATIVE GRAVITY

Ernst Mach was right, Einstein was right....

SSC is fifty feet off of its white line that serves as the guide down the desert, a perilous conundrum reminiscent of the fate that claimed Glen Leasher... it is very easy to get disoriented in the desert, and Green is following the wrong white line... Green is fighting this vehicle, something that was designed as a model of stability in supersonic chaos and the car is blown off course by fifty feet... "I'll say that was fast... 450, chute out, yes, everything is wonderful."

Danny Jo goes into a singular trance, in tune with the manifold harmonics of the jet engines and the sound of molecules compressing into a pane of glass to be punctured like this was Vienna in 1868... he hears the singing of the angels, dancing on the proverbial pins... the desert exhales... it is like some bodacious, preternatural breath of relief, a post-coital moan of exultation worthy of tantric monks and snow leopards.

The blind hippie reaches for his sock, wiggles his toes again, and smiles.

Ron Ayer's approach to Mach 1 — use a ton of weight and downforce and just suck that baby onto the playa — proved to be the correct one. Poetically, on October 15th, 1997, one day after the 50th anniversary of Chuck Yeager's supersonic flight, Andy Green recorded speeds of 759 and 766 mph, which translated to Mach numbers of 1.01 and 1.05, establishing a supersonic LSR of 763 mph. "The car becomes unstable at around Mach 0.85 as the airflow starts to go supersonic underneath the vehicle and requires very rapid, precise steering inputs to keep it on the white guide line," Green clarified afterward, ironically using the present tense to describe his benchmark performance. "The car becomes slightly more stable above Mach 0.9 and can then be steered fairly accurately through the measured mile. The shockwaves formed visible moisture on the front of the car, which could be seen from the cockpit and which moved back along the body as the car accelerated." Green continued to describe how Thrust SSC exquisitely but firmly punctured a hole in the sound barrier. "The car then remains reasonably stable as it accelerates through Mach 1, with the rate of acceleration dropping off as the vehicle generates the huge shockwaves which cause the sonic boom." BOOM. Mach 1 was no longer theoretical. The bigger hammer method prevailed.

Noble, Green, Ayers, et. al, achieved their technological imperative — designed a race car that wouldn't disintegrate as it punched a hole in the sound barrier — convincingly. Art Arfons put the magnitude of this achievement in perspective: "Everybody has been bragging — me included — that we'll go out there and go supersonic when we really couldn't," he said. "This guy did it. This has got to be the living end."

Arfons nailed it: It is the end of an era and it all transpired at the end of the century, during the waning moments of the millennium. Regardless of the heroics and foibles of Sir Malcolm, John Cobb, Craig Breedlove, and Art Arfons, future historians will regard Richard Noble's and Andy Green's feat as the last epic gesture of the fossil fuel age, because. . . hot rodding is over — the gearheads have reached the Holy Grail.

After Mach 1, what else is there?

They have the national record, finally, at 215.091 but, the SCTA-BNI International and FIA (the acknowledged World record sanctioning body for motorsports, the Federation International d'Automobile) World's record are still held by our 'Banks Sidewinder Dakota' at 217.301. And know this, setting a World's record is more than one-way speed. To claim such a record, you must make runs in two directions over the surveyed mile within 60 minutes and do so under close FIA supervision and scrutiny.

The Spal guys have made it interesting, sounds like I might need to dust off the Sidewinder and get salty. The bragging rights over 'fastest' might sometimes be a blur at 200+ miles per hour, but the truth is not. That's why FIA World Records are so important, and that's why they're so important to keep straight.