Team Steam driver Nelson Hoyos hopes that he will be the man to take the steam driven land speed record from the British, who claimed it in 2009, back to the USA with a 200mph run, and intends to extend that to 400mph by the end of 2013.
The car will be pushed to 60mph before the engine will kick in and drive the car up to 200mph in the first quarter of 2013, if all goes according to plan.
Following that, the team intends to go faster, and has a target of first 300mph, and then 400, although they realise that significant car modifications would be necessary to hit this target-
The team has another engine in the workshop, an increase in capacity to to 3-litres, produces 2650ft/lbs of torque and can take the car beyond 400mph.
The plan is to hit 200mph, before prepping the car for a 250mph run at Bonneville salt flats in the summer, The new engine will then be fitted with a target of 400mph, nearly three times the current speed. The goal is to be above 300mph with it and if we can go 400, that would be super but that will be a challenge,' says Hoyos, 'Once you go a little faster, everything becomes exponentially harder.
'Although we have the power to go 400, it would take more time.
Cyclone still lists Hoyos as one of their executives. The "2650ft/lbs of torque" engine would be the Mark 6. It's described as 330 hp rather than the 200 Tom mentioned so he was a little off there. But this interview with Hoyos mentions 400 mph five separate times, so it's not a typo.
Did Cyclone ever try to build a Mark 6? Other than the fake engine on the truck chassis that Harry described as if it was a real, running engine, that is?
Also note the statement "The plan is to hit 200mph, before prepping the car for a 250mph run at Bonneville salt flats in the summer". So all the excuses from Harry and Frankie about needing tens of thousands of dollars in donations to cover the cost of a trip to Bonneville before they can run the car are just more intentional misrepresentation. The original plan was to run the car in Florida. I think Harry even mentioned on the steam car board the name of the drag strip they were going to run the car at.
Of course, there's no reason in the world why they couldn't just put that "beast" of an engine in Frankie's expensive speedboat and launch it at the nearest boat ramp.
No reason, except that they can't make the engine produce any power or run for more than a short time without self destructing, that is.
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