Do you remember that steam-powered bicycle I shared a few weeks back? It was hand-built, firewood, and puffs of smoke – and not that fast…
But it was amusing to see what someone with way too much time on their hands could do to answer the question, “Hey, can you hold ma beer?”
This, however, is an animal of a very DIFFERENT sort. It is highly machined, and costly, and the outgassing steam is more like a jet engine than the “puff, puff, putter, putter” of the bicycle:
Fastest steam-powered motorcycle in history tears up the 1/8th mile
A husband-and-wife precision engineering team has set a new world record standing 1/8th mile time for steam-powered motorcycles. The Force of Nature is effectively a rocket on wheels, and the team says it should go much faster in the next attempt.
British couple Graham and Diane Sykes took their creation to Elvington Speed Week to lay down a record-breaking time of 3.878 seconds for the standing eighth, with a recorded exit speed of 163.8 mph (264 km/h). Graham was aboard the steam-powered dragster for the attempt, and said the bike continued to accelerate, passing 180 mph (290 km/h) some way after the post.
“There is still lots more power to come, and I feel sure we will run quicker in the coming months,” the team wrote in a blog post.
Very interesting…
HT | New Atlas
