What's the speed record for cars transmitting power through wheels ?

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The land speed record is close to 700mph but it's held by a rocket on wheels more than a car. I was wondering what the record was for 'real' cars (for which torque is applied to the ground as only means of propulsion).
 
Actually, the Land Speed Record is slightly in excess of 763mph (Mach 1.02) by Thrust SSC. The car is actually a jet on wheels - two engines from an F4-E Phantom aircraft. The last "rocket" on wheels to hold the record was the Blue Flame which reached 622mph, although the Budweiser Rocket Car used a Sidewinder to reach a fraction over Mach 1, it was never officially ratified.


The Land Speed Record for a wheel-driven vehicle is...

458.44mph, by Don Vesco driving the "Turbinator", set in 2001.
 
The last time a wheel driven vehicle owned the land speed record was in 1947. John Cobb drove the Railton Mobil Special to 394.2 mph.
 
Bah. The turbinator has a turbine engine. That's cheating. What is the land speed record for a car driven buy a 4-stroke internal combustion engine? Or rotary. :dopey:
 
No - the Blue Flame had three wheels.

Budweiser Rocket had just the one Sidewinder. Land Speed Record rules require two flying mile runs within an hour of each other, and the average is taken. One missile meant one run...
 
Event Horizon
Bah. The turbinator has a turbine engine. That's cheating. What is the land speed record for a car driven buy a 4-stroke internal combustion engine? Or rotary. :dopey:
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Goldenrod. 409mph.
 
Thanks alot to Famine and the others.

I guess I could've found the answer on the net but I couldn't have been sure it was the definitive record-holder. I trust the expert knowledge of the members of this forum more.

For those interested, here's a picture of the "Turbinator". I'm a bit disappointed it looks quite a lot like the Thrust SSC and al - though it seems quite a bit lower- but I guess that at these speeds aerodynamical considerations dictate that overall cigare shape. I would have thought that a certain wideness could bring some stability, but it seems that wide lsr cars have disappeared during the 50s.
 

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CRX
I'm a bit disappointed it looks quite a lot like the Thrust SSC and al - though it seems quite a bit lower- but I guess that at these speeds aerodynamical considerations dictate that overall cigare shape. I would have thought that a certain wideness could bring some stability, but it seems that wide lsr cars have disappeared during the 50s.
Click to expand...
Eh? Thrust SSC is massive. It's pretty wide too.

thrustSSC.jpg
 

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