Wind-powered car breaks record

[formercia]

Source: BBC



Greenbird wind powered vehicle
Wind powered Greenbird reached speeds of 126.1 mph

A British engineer from Hampshire has broken the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle.

Richard Jenkins reached 126.1mph (202.9km/h) in his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada.

Mr Jenkins told the BBC that it had taken him 10 years of "hard work" to break the record and that, on the day, "things couldn't have been better".

American Bob Schumacher set the previous record of 116 mph in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7968860.stm

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How's that for MPG?

[ohio2007]

1. ... never mind eom

[rfranklin]

12. versus "Powered Car Breaks Wind?'" nt

nt

[rrneck]

2. Great! But

I bet it's a bitch to park. :P

[formercia]

4. Parking garages, especially on calm days.

Underpasses might also pose problems. :)

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Assuming you ignore the oil based energy

that went into producing the materials and components and whatever was expended in putting the thing together, I guess you could justifiably say this thing gets ∞ miles per gallon.

[jwirr]

9. Come on - quit trying to bust our bubble!

:sarcasm: This may be interesting to the issue of speed but what does it do when it holds a family of four?

[sendero]

5. Intersting novelty..

... but nothing to do with practical transportation.

[IDemo]

6. Here you go:

:sarcasm:

[goforit]

7. Looks like a grasshopper. LOL!!!

[Ellipsis]

8. Sweet!

Looks like an iceboat!

[fascisthunter]

10. very cool

[orbitalman]

11. ... or a praying mantis !

[tomreedtoon]

13. When the words "wind" and "breaks" show up close...

...you can expect the flood of elementary-school jokes. I'm surprised there's only been one so far.

On a more serious note, when you have a sail-powered car like this, is it possible to sail against the wind, the same way that sailboats do? Or are these vehicles only good for one-direction trips?

[RonHack]

14. People! Focus!

There is something of interest in this news topic.

To wit:

"The Greenbird is a carbon fibre composite vehicle.... The only metalwork used is for the wing bearings and the wheel unit."

Did you get that part? That jumped out at me, myself.

What it means, is that the future of automobiles, no matter the fuel source (battery, hydrogen, whatever), is more likely to be built out of carbon.

Think about it. It's stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, doesn't rust or corrode, and theoretically (in past news, need to find the link) can allow a car to hit 100 mpg WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. Not sure about accident-resistance......

BTW, any other links to the Greenbird? I want to get a better look at the "small wings to "stick" the car to the ground, in the same way Formula 1 cars do.". Maybe a new fashion statement for street mods? Who knows.....

[formercia]

16. Carbon fiber will last for decades, long after the insides have rotted away.

A good thing if you plan to keep your car running for decades and a bad thing if the car design is shoddy like the East German Trabant.

Fortunately, the Trabant has become something of a cult genre:

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=trabant&sa=N&start=40&ndsp=20

Cars built to run for 50 years are a good idea, methinks.

Note: The Trabants' body is a plastic composite and contains no carbon fiber.

[Oldtimeralso]

15. I Hear Reports Of A Rush Sighting In Nevada. n/t

[mindwalker_i]

17. record powered car breaks wind n/t

[Norrin Radd]

18. Mad Max could've benefitted from that.

[gristy]

19. Interesting. BBC news has included links to 6 related articles from the past 7 years

It looks like they do this on all their reporting. Good idea!

Here's another example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7970731.stm
On the right there are links to related stories from the past couple months