Car faster than sound?
Twenty years ago, British driver Andy Green set the land speed record for a diesel-powered car, reaching 350 mph at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats. Green will return to the lunarlike landscape and try to beat that mark, this time with a hydrogen-powered car. Green will be driving the 32-foot JCB Hydromax, the brainchild of British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The car is bright yellow, long and slim, resembling a pencil. It’s powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, which were adapted from engines used in the company’s construction machinery. When targeting the diesel-powered record, Green also hopes to easily clear the world land speed records for hydrogen internal combustion engines and electric vehicles. Green hit a new top speed of 368.347 mph in practice last week, but to officially earn the hydrogen record, he’ll have to do it Tuesday in front of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.
“What the peak speed is, I can’t say. We just don’t know,” he said. “Part of the adventure here is we’re going to find out.” One thing Tuesday’s attempt will assuredly not do is approach the supersonic speeds Green reached with jet power three decades ago. In 1997, he traveled faster than the speed of sound and set the outright land speed record 763 mph in a car powered by twin jet engines. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach. Now 64 years old, Green said he thought he was done racing but came out of retirement when JCB approached him with plans for the new car. The company has invested more than $134 million into hydrogen-powered engines that it says emit no carbon dioxide from the tailpipes.
Hydrogen combustion engines also present unique safety challenges due to the high pressure and flammability of the gas. “We’re managing the risks very carefully,” Green said. The car endured rigorous testing, and Green said he spent months learning how it responds to the elements, how the engines work in tandem and how to deploy a parachute to slow the car on the low-friction salt crust. Spectators must stand about a quarter of a mile from the course’s straightaway, which is 10 miles long, and often watch through wide-angle binoculars.
Follow your dream
Doctor, I have a problem: every night I dream of rats playing football!
Take this medicine, and this nightmare will stop!
Thank you! I’ll start taking it tomorrow!
Why tomorrow?
Well, today they’re playing the Super bowl!
An older couple are lying in bed one morning and the wife said, “I had a dream I was in Kohls with a $500 gift card.”
The husband said, “I had a dream I was naked with three women.”
The wife asked, “Was I there?”
Husband replied, “No, you were at Kohls.”
Me: “Doc, I have this weird dream every night that I’m filling up my house with unnecessary groceries.”
Doctor: “I see. You may have stock home syndrome.”
Halfway to my dream of being a criminal lawyer!
Now I just have to work on the lawyer part.
August 14th Birthdays
1968 – Halle Barry, 1947 – Danielle Steel, 1997 – Briana Hildebrand, 1960 – Sarah Brightman
1959 – Magic Johnson, 1950 – Gary Larson, 1945 – Steve Martin 1987 – Tim Tebow