The conclusion reached after hearing a team of wacky Brits are looking to set the 100-year unbroken land speed record for steam powered vehicles is probably something like "there's a land speed record for just about everything." You'd probably be right, and proof of that assertion's coming in the spring of next year in Verneuk Pan, a lake bed in South Africa's Northern Cape — where the all-British team (complete with a "lady driver") will seek the un-Hammond-like speed of 200 mph as the champ speed of all things steam. That would beat the conductors cap off the old official record set at 127.659 mph by Fred Marriot's Stanley Steamer in 1906. But in our minds it still falls short of the old unofficial record set back in 1928, by a little cartoon duck named "RailCar Daffy" — unfortunately, his run of 382.1 mph was not sanctioned by the F d ration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world motorsport's governing body, which requires an average of two runs in opposite directions — as well as requiring non-fictional drivers to not infringe on any of Disney's non-fictional water-vehicle driving characters.
Full steam ahead [Telegraph.co.uk]
Related:
GM Sets Class Record at Bonneville Speed Week [internal]