Hydrogen Fueled Land Speed Record Racer

Hydrogen Fueled Land Speed Record

Hot Rod Racer

780 hp 572-cu.in. big-block Chevrolet V-8

By Jessie James

Hydrogen Land Speed Record Hot Rod V8 Fu

Yes Eat your Hat seams Fast Hydrogen Hot Rodding can be done

Hydrogen is a valid race Fuel.

Well I guess if all these engine run, to name a few so can any Engine Right?

Jesse G. James custom built a Big Block and challenged the land speed record for a hydrogen powered vehicle and successfully broke it.

The previous record holder, the hydrogen-fueled BMW H2R, powered by a 6.0-liter V-12 engine, which generates 232 horsepower, helping it to achieve a top speed of over 185 mph.

Before going to El Mirage Dry Lake Bed, Jesse James prepared for this challenge for months, including asking for help from the land speed racer Mike Cook. Mike advised Jesse on the design of the car and even went with him in the testing phase.

Engine builder Kurt Urban also came from Detroit to help Jesse. Altogether, they developed an emission free vehicle, with a ‘Breathable Exhaust’.

After all these preparations, Jesse took the Streamliner into the Mojave Desert and shattered the land speed record for a hydrogen powered vehicle, by hitting 199.7 mph which was well with in the power class of this engine..

The land-speed car also shows that alternative-fuel cars can have a popular appeal,

Jessie James "We don't have to be dorks to make things environmentally friendly."

So with that said lets Lets Make Cool Stuff with Power.

Converting the 572-cubic-inch Chevrolet crate motor to hydrogen was first attempted by Quantum Technologies, which then handed the project over to Detroit engine deity Kurt Urban.

The common problem with Performance engines is heat same in this case.

"As you make power, you make heat," Urban said.

All engines do that, of course, but with hydrogen, you have significant obstacles to overcome. Urban invented all kinds of ways to deal with the heat.

The biggest and potentially most-lethal problem was that the hydrogen would ignite back into the intake runners. So Urban used longer intake runners that also had a low profile to fit under the hood. The runners he chose are the same ones used on Can-Am race cars back in the day. Then he introduced a means to inject water into the runners as needed to prevent detonation of the fuel there. Water shoots into the twin turbochargers to cool them, too.

A large tank packed with ice and water sits inside the car's nose. When the engine temperature rises above 170 degrees, the ice water flows through the block to cool it down. With runs that last only a minute or two, you have options you wouldn't have on a regular car.

Twenty-four injectors spray fuel into the eight cylinders. A normal V8 would have eight.

"The engineers said it couldn't go over 500 hp," said Urban.

"This one makes 740. Sometimes engineers are too smart."

The car carries three, 5,000-psi tanks of gaseous hydrogen.

"This, I honestly believe, is world-changing,

" Jesse James said of the emissions-free race car.

"We can't rely on gasoline forever. I'm paying it forward."

James made a trial run on the abandoned runways of El Toro before coming to El Mirage.

"Just to make sure the transmission and everything worked," said Urban.

It did, but, as any land-speed racer or any racer with a new car will tell you, nothing ever goes right the first time.

James aborted his first run at El Mirage when dust immediately filled the cockpit, blinding him. The crew, led by revered land-speed legend Mike Cook, quickly sealed up the cockpit and any other potential entry point for dust. Instead of anything high-tech, they used cardboard and duct tape. To block a large opening above the parachute tubes, they stuffed in a pillow.

A test run showed that there was still too much dust. So the crew used more cardboard and more duct tape.

Another test run showed that the dust was tolerable, but the engine wasn't making the power.

So the Cook family, Cook friends, SCTA members and the heavily tattooed West Coast Chopper team opened up the air intake using tin snips, crescent wrenches, hammers, wooden blocks and, finally, a baseball bat.

As daylight ran out, James flew through the timing lights of the SCTA course at 199 mph.