Breaking land speed records with steam power, the USLSR Team points the way ahead

Steam engines are more of a blast from the past these days, with high-tech energy powered engines doing the rounds. Usually associated with slow chugging sets of wheels, steam power is just about to prove the world wrong! Here’s something we never expected. Vehicles using steam engines setting land speed records! Currently, the fastest steam land speed record is set at 148 mph (238 km/h) marked in the year 2009. Chuk Williams’ U.S. Land Steam Record (USLSR) Team is busy drawing plans to break this record soon with the LSR Streamliner using a heat-regenerative external combustion Cyclone engine. The Cyclone runs on just about any fuel that you could lay your hands on, and that includes biofuels too.

With all the tech this one packs in, the team is hoping to have it touch a good 160 mph (257.5kph). So could steam be the future of powering automobiles? We wait and watch!

[Gizmag]