I always tell people that land speed racing is a whole other ballgame. I say this because if things go bad, they go real bad on the salt or dirt. You are talking about cars that weigh a lot more than they would have from the factory, which means that when things go bad they go bad for a long time. Knowing all of this, and seeing what happens when someone crashes on the salt at Bonneville, I still can’t believe how nuts these guys are that are trying to go over 300 mph on the water. This is some crazy stuff, especially when you see what percentage of these guys do not walk away from their attempts.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
Video Description:
The Water Speed Record is absolutely outrageous. The current record was set by Ken Warby in 1978, with a speed of 317 mph. This record has stood for over 45 years for one simple reason – it’s insanely dangerous.
Since the late 19th century, people have been pushing the limits of speed on water, but as the speeds increased, so did the risks. Five out of the seven men who have attempted to break this record since 1940 have lost their lives because of it making it one of the deadliest records in the world.
Shoutout to all the people pushing boundaries and crusading into the unknown.
Interesting stuff. Guys that try this are flat nuts. I was actually thinking about the idea of a hydrofoil before they revealed that SSC is a building such a boat. A hydrofoil would allow the boat to fly above the water with the only the foils making contact with the water. There clearly are some big engineering questions to address as no one has tried to travel at very high speed in a hydrofoil. Can power overcome the pretty high drag created by the foils? How many foils are needed balancing drag vs control? Lastly it would seem the foils may need to be much longer than normal to get the boat as high up out of the water as possible. The higher up the boat is above the water the greater the safety margin as the boat rises and falls along the run.