think or thwim

Wired has the story of Alex Roy and David Maher’s attempt to break the USA cross-country driving record known as the Cannonball Run.

The previous record for the 2800 mile coast to coast trip was 32 hours, 7 minutes, set in 1983. To beat it, Roy and Maher must average 90 miles per hour for almost a day and a half.

Roy’s quest is definitely illegal and quite possibly impossible. He is one of the few drivers wealthy and geeky and foolish enough to try it anyway. So far he’s tried and failed twice, but he’s still convinced that his careful calculations will allow him to beat the record.

The story is at Wired Magazine.

An interesting piece of trivia: In 1980 the winner was Will Wright, creator of the Sims.

:: Miscellany

If you plan to try it, this site might be helpful: Speedtrap Exchange.

cannonball run, fast cars, racing, speed, will wright

l’Hydroptère is a 60 foot sailboat, but when it’s moving it doesn’t spend much time in the water. Above 12 knots, it pops out of the water and rides on hydrofoils, which look and act like small airplane wings under water. When riding on it’s foils the Hydroptère has very little surface area in contact with the water (2 square meters) and therefore, very little drag.

• 1975: A team of aeronautical engineers, aircraft part manufacturers and sailors managed to convince Eric Tabarly of the project’s viability.
• 1987-1992: Alain Thébault built a 1/3 scale model.
• 1st October 1994: l’Hydroptère’s first flight.
• January 27, 2007: Reached it’s top speed of 47.2 knots - shown in the video below.

hytroptere.com

Here are some smaller hydrofoil sailboats that you can buy:

• Hobie Trifoiler (no longer in production)
• Moth
• Windrider Rave

:: Fresh Creation

boats, flying, hydroptere, sailing, speed, wind

One problem with testing cars in wind tunnels is that that the stationary floor affects the air flow. To solve that problem Haas Automation (Haas Racing) and Jacobs Engineering are building a wind tunnel with a treadmill floor. The pictures show the treadmill portion, but it doesn’t appear to be located in the the wind tunnel yet. I would imagine this whole assembly will be recessed into the floor of the completed wind tunnel.

From the Haas CNC Magazine (PDF pg 44):

The distinctive “rolling road” is actually a 1-millimeter-thick continuous steel belt about 11 feet wide and nearly 30 feet long. A revolutionary “thru-the-belt” sensing system will measure the aerodynamic downforce under each tire, providing handling data with greater accuracy than ever before. At the tunnel’s top speed, the 22-foot diameter main fan will re-circulate 2.85 million cubic feet of air per minute, consuming 7 megawatts of power in the process.

The $40 million wind tunnel is under construction in Concord, NC. Langley Air Force Base has a good description of their similarly sized wind tunnel.

:: Hacked Gadgets :: OhGizmo :: Jalopnik

cars, speed, wind

The Veyron is the most powerful, quickest accelerating, fastest, and most expensive production car ever made.

8.0 liter, 16 cylinder, 1000 horsepower, 250 mph (400 kmh), all wheel drive, 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, 5.8 mpg (city). $1,400,000 MSRP

When the brakes are applied at speeds over 124 miles per hour, the rear spoiler snaps to vertical to act as an air brake. That must work pretty well. According to Bugatti, the Veyron will decelerate from 250 mph to 0 in under 10 seconds.

According to Wikipedia:

Maintenance will be possible at Bentley dealerships, but repair service will require a flown-in mechanic, whom the company promises will be available 24 hours a day.

Order yours here: CarsDirect.com

:: Signal vs Noise

I’d still rather have a Tesla Roadster, which seems like a bargain all of a sudden.

bugattis, cars, fast cars, speed

0-60 in 2.9 seconds. Starting at $36,000 US. The video gets off to a slow start, but stick with it. It’s worth the wait:

As if this weren’t cool enough already, Ian Wright put an electric motor in an Atom and called it the Wrightspeed X1. Acceleration is similar for the electric and gas versions. The gas version gets about 25 mpg. The electric version should be more efficient. Here’s a video of the Wrightspeed walloping a Modena and a Carrera GT. You can’t buy a Wrightspeed X1 because its a concept car. The build cost was about $150,000.

I still like the Tesla Roadster better. It has a smoother suspension, a roof, a windshield, A/C, heated seats, and you can actually buy one. They sold the 200th one last week (anticipated delivery date is Fall 07).

ariel atoms, brammo motorsports, cars, electric cars, fast cars, speed, tesla roadsters, wrightspeed