Century old race tech:

[4sfed]

There's a good summary of land speed records on landracing.com . . .
http://www.landracing.com/index.php?opt ... &Itemid=20

[Truckedup]

Compared to full gallop on a genuine hairy horse (which was all most people would be familiar with at that time) reaching the magic 100mph would be like exceeding the speed of light.

There were many people at the time that firmly believed the human body could not tolerate such speeds. Boy, were they wrong!

Ken

Locomotive speed records were often inflated but by 1900 steam locomotives could approach 90 MPH.

[Kevin Johnson]

There were many people at the time that firmly believed the human body could not tolerate such speeds. Boy, were they wrong!

I think they were correct except it had more to do with how quickly you sped up and, especially, slowed down.

[novadude]

In 1907 Glenn Curtiss was clocked at 136 MPH on a Florida beach....269 cube 40 hp V-8. His record was broken in 1911 by a Benz 4 wheel racer,141 MPH...

You'd need to really have GUTS, or be just a little crazy to ride that thing at that speed with no protective equipment to speak of!

[kirkwoodken]

This is interesting: Jan 26, 1906 127.600 Stanley Rocket Fred Marriott Daytona Twin-Cyl Steam ST

Fred Marriot's Centennial Run
THE FASTEST CAR IN THE WORLD

Mr. Fred Marriot's description of this car:

Wheel base: 100". Wheel tread: 54". Width of body at center: 36".

Gear ratio: 82 teeth on the driving gear; 48 teeth on the driven gear. Wheels revolved 1 3/4 times to each revolution of the engine. Engine is 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and makes 350 revolutions to the mile.

Wheels: 34" diameter, equipped with 3" G & J tires. Wheels make 600 revolutions to the mile.

Tiller steering.

Manufacturers rated h.p.: 30; approximate developed horsepower, 250. Plug type pistons, no rings. Weight of engine: 205 lbs.

Boiler was 30" diameter, 18" deep, 1475 tubes 33/64" O.D.; 20-ga. wall thickness of seamless steel; total heating surface, 285 sq. ft. Steam pressure: about 1000 lbs., (Boiler was wrapped with piano wire to give it extra strength.)

When car was demolished on January 27, 1907, while traveling at over 190 mph (some sources say 198 mph), the steam pressure was 1300 lbs.

The burner was Stanley's vaporizing, slot grate type; gasoline fuel.

Engine had Stephenson link motion for variable cut-off and reverse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Marriott

Steam pressure 1300#!!!! Holy crap. Two cylinder engine. Outstanding! How much heat is needed to boil water at 1300 Psi?

[Warpspeed]

Its interesting that the very first land speed records were all set by electric vehicles.

If you wanted a gasoline engine, you would probably have to build it entirely yourself, and make just about every individual part yourself, including the entire transmission and drivetrain.

You could not just pull into the local gas station and "fill her up" either.
There was just nothing automotive around back then, which makes it all even more amazing.

Those guys were not only very brave men, they were pretty smart and recourceful too.

[kirkwoodken]

Just found a free 546 page book about steam engines here:

http://books.googleusercontent.com/book ... oLuDi24TZg

Might be a lead to some more interesting free books.

[enigma57]

In 1907 Glenn Curtiss was clocked at 136 MPH on a Florida beach....269 cube 40 hp V-8. His record was broken in 1911 by a Benz 4 wheel racer,141 MPH...

Tony, that was the Blitzen Benz, I believe. 21.5 litre 4-cylinder engine with chain drive. 2 valves and 2 spark plugs per cylinder, magneto fired. 200 HP and 1,000 ft./lb. of torque. A fun ride on skinny tires at 100 plus MPH for sure (see 5th video. sorry, no sound)......











https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/cl ... -Benz.html

Best regards,

Harry