Cyclone LSR Enters Fine Tuning Stage

Soon, more than a year would have passed since engine manufacturer Cyclone announced it has shipped the first parts to be used by the US Land Steam Record Team in the construction of the streamliner vehicle which will take on the world speed record for steam vehicles. And soon, the vehicle will go for its first run.

Today, Cyclone and the builder of the vehicle, Chuk William, announced that the model had come back to the company for the last minute touches and measurements. After that, the engine, gearbox and fiberglass body will be fitted, and the car ready to go.

As we already told you last year, the vehicle will use Cyclone's Mark V heat-regenerative external combustion engine which develops 180 hp and a maximum starting torque of 850 ft/lbs and 262 ft/lbs at 3600 rpm. Initial calculations show that the vehicle should be able to propel the car to a top speed of 160 mph.

The current land speed record was set by Team Inspiration of Great Britain, who drove their vehicle at speeds over 148mph in August 2009.

“With the Cyclone engine, we feel that we have an excellent chance of breaking the existing record of 148 mph set by the British team Inspiration,” said team leader and car creator Chuk Williams.

“We need to bring this historic record back to the United States, and we want to do it with a steam engine that can eventually be placed into everyday passenger and commercial vehicles – something that hasn’t been done in over 100 years.”