What is the point of a land speed record

obi_waynne

obi_waynne

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What would you say the point is of a land speed record?

Do you think we will hit the 1000mph hoped for in 2011? Does this have any relevance to our normal driving lives?
 
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I think it's utterly pointless and the money used could be going on more usefull resources. These speeds are just daft? We would never use them on the road so why build a car just to go down some long straight and cost loads an loads of money for what? For it the be printed on some paper that they hold the record? I don't get it myself.
 
waynne said:
Do you think it encourages engineering and pushes the technology envelope further?
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Only superficially. Let's face it 500mph in an aircraft is totally unremarkable.

The only difference with a land speed record attempt, conducted in a 'car' of sorts, is that you have to keep the bloody thing on on the ground for it to qualify as such.

And that, my friends, is the difficult bit.

:)
 
Ask a climber why they climb & they'll say because it's there. I think it's the same with land speed records :amuse: Lets face it aiming for 1000mph with a jet engine & a rocket behind your head has got to be a bit of a buzz! :lol:

But why do we do anything though? Dive the deepest trench, climb the highest mountain, fly the furthest distance? Without these people pushing the limits of technology & endurance life would be a little dull & pointless. We all need a target to aim for or a hero to emulate, it gives us a purpose to our brief time on planet erf. ;)

Good question Waynne!
 
I can see what your saying yes on the whole there some projects that seem pointless but there's always a lesson to learn (normally don't do it this way! :lol:). People who tend to build these things are professionals & engineers who work in other areas such as aeronautics or heavy engineering etc & these guys are applying what they learned in to a more glamorous application. Cars like this do seem pointless but I like to think that they may inspire the generation of designers, engineers & scientists. If one person thinks 'I can do that better' they may well go on to design a more efficient engine or a lower friction drive train or develop a material that withstands higher temperatures, that we all can benefit from. If we don't push the boundaries we'll never learn. :D
 
Loz said:
I can see what your saying yes on the whole there some projects that seem pointless but there's always a lesson to learn (normally don't do it this way! :lol:). People who tend to build these things are professionals & engineers who work in other areas such as aeronautics or heavy engineering etc & these guys are applying what they learned in to a more glamorous application. Cars like this do seem pointless but I like to think that they may inspire the generation of designers, engineers & scientists. If one person thinks 'I can do that better' they may well go on to design a more efficient engine or a lower friction drive train or develop a material that withstands higher temperatures, that we all can benefit from. If we don't push the boundaries we'll never learn. :D
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exactly, first it might look pointless, but later those researches can be found useful in other things, so here you go the entire scientific research.
 
records are there as an achievment
the land speed record is too much for any rd car, that is true, but it shows us what speed a car can actually go = how much engineering has become

when the buggati came out first, it was the fastest rd going car, it beat the record of the last fastest rd going car which was the koinggzegg (i think)

if people didnt try and break such records, dont you think it would be a boring world??
what i mean is, because theres people out there all the time trying to build better and faster things, it would be like living in a world thats stoped if they didnt

back in the 40s land speed records were what we can now get from a everyday car
so i think records like the land speed are important, (not now, but for the future generations)
 
prevtec said:
records are there as an achievment
the land speed record is too much for any rd car, that is true, but it shows us what speed a car can actually go = how much engineering has become

when the buggati came out first, it was the fastest rd going car, it beat the record of the last fastest rd going car which was the koinggzegg (i think)

if people didnt try and break such records, dont you think it would be a boring world??
what i mean is, because theres people out there all the time trying to build better and faster things, it would be like living in a world thats stoped if they didnt

back in the 40s land speed records were what we can now get from a everyday car
so i think records like the land speed are important, (not now, but for the future generations)
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I think the Koenigsegg CCX-R beat the Veyron's top speed.
 
i dont know tn, you could be right
but you see my point dont ya?? without records to be broken, none of these cars would be invented
 
... couldt u say the same thing about drag racin etc nd 1/4 mile runs at santa pod, we all spend loads of our hard earned to reach the quickest time we can
 
prevtec said:
back in the 40s land speed records were what we can now get from a everyday car
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Crikey, I wish :)

August 23 1939, John Cobb raised the land speed record to 369.74mph.
On September 15 1947 Cobb raised it again, this time to 393.82mph.
 
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charger69 said:
land top speed achieving is just a matter of rich peoples ego.... it's all useless and it's all safe, like all show, no go.
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Tell that to:

John Godfery Parry Thomes - Decapitated on Pennine sands
Frank Lockhart - Crashed on Datona Beach.

However, not anywhere as dangerous as attempting the water speed record. Henry Segrave, Lee Bible, Donald Cambell, John Cobb, Lee Taylor and Craig Arfons all died attempting it.

And it is certainly not 'no go'. In fact it is as 'all go' as you can possibly get.
 
old-git said:
Crikey, I wish :)

August 23 1939, John Cobb raised the land speed record to 369.74mph.
On September 15 1947 Cobb raised it again, this time to 393.82mph.
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did they get that much speed back then??
but do you see my point, now there going to try and get 1000 mph
that was unheard of back then:D
 
prevtec said:
did they get that much speed back then??
but do you see my point, now there going to try and get 1000 mph
that was unheard of back then:D
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the tops speed on land is somewhere i think 1300 km/h

now there are planes that go 2000km/h

is this their goal, and would ig work properly?
 
One point worth making is that planes don't do 1000mph at sea level for a number of very practical reasons. It's all quite different at 20,000!

Do you think there is much driver skill involved? Could a human actually react quickly enough to stop a crash in one of these? I'm thinking also of poor old hammonds mishap.
 
waynne said:
One point worth making is that planes don't do 1000mph at sea level for a number of very practical reasons. It's all quite different at 20,000!

Do you think there is much driver skill involved? Could a human actually react quickly enough to stop a crash in one of these? I'm thinking also of poor old hammonds mishap.
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i don't think it's tto much driving skill needed, but for several reasons they don't put there amateur drivers, they're usually pilots.
 
charger69 said:
i don't think it's tto much driving skill needed, but for several reasons they don't put there amateur drivers, they're usually pilots.
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WHAT!!! Not much drving skill needed? You are joking, yes?

That is precisely why fighter pilots are used. They are supremely skillful with reaction times we can only dream of.

If you don't believe there is any skill involved in driving a car faster than the speed of sound on salt, then watch and listen to these. Andy Green is made of the 'right stuff'.

Last two of a 9 part story of the breaking of the sound barrier.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cBOXy-GsP6o&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tax_voQzkRY&feature=related
 
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StevieDB9 said:
my work has been tasked with designing the wheels for the car in the next record attempt. helps to push our technology to the limits and helps us with our "own" work
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Now, that IS interesting!

What exactly is your 'own' work?
 
old-git said:
WHAT!!! Not much drving skill needed? You are joking, yes?

That is precisely why fighter pilots are used. They are supremely skillful with reaction times we can only dream of.

If you don't believe there is any skill involved in driving a car faster than the speed of sound on salt, then watch and listen to these. Andy Green is made of the 'right stuff'.

Last two of a 9 part story of the breaking of the sound barrier.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cBOXy-GsP6o&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Tax_voQzkRY&feature=related
Click to expand...
ok there is some skill needed, but i would have thought they used pilots because traveling at that speed air or ground, the body has to put up with phonomenol g-forces

a normal driver would just pass out (normal as in a f-1 driver) the g-force would be too great for them
??????????:D
 
prevtec said:
ok there is some skill needed, but i would have thought they used pilots because traveling at that speed air or ground, the body has to put up with phonomenol g-forces

a normal driver would just pass out (normal as in a f-1 driver) the g-force would be too great for them
??????????:D
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In the new Bloohound SSC car Andy Green will be subjected to just over 2.5g, not that high. In Thrust SSC the g-forces were even less, so any normally fit person would have no real trouble coping with this after a little practice.

Pilots only have to cope with very high g-forces when turning, something neither Thrust or Bloodhound is designed to do.

F1 drivers have to cope with g-forces in excess of 5g for over 90 minutes!!! So F1 drivers have to cope with much higher g-forces than Andy Green encountered in Thrust and will have to endure in Bloodhound.
 
The wheels radial acceleration will be causing astonishing G's in the order of 50,000 of them. Sounds like you've got the fun part of the engineering to solve StevieDB9.;)

How you make wheels that can withstand those forces and weigh less than 150kg is anyones guess.

If I might give a little techincal expertise to the Bloodhound SSCs technical team based on my own rather limited engineering experience......

I would suggest round wheels would work best.;)
 
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