Posted on 06/18/2009 8:16:39 AM PDT by pikachu
Six years after he got the idea and bought the streamliner, Jesse James has set the world record for hydrogen-powered speed.
Late afternoon on June 16, James flew across the windswept dust of El Mirage dry lake bed in the California desert and tripped the lights at 199.712 mph. That was 14 mph faster than the previous record of 185 mph, set in Germany by BMW in its hydrogen-powered H2H.
"This, I honestly believe, is world-changing," James said of the emissions-free race car. "We can't rely on gasoline forever. I'm paying it forward."
The whole deal was for the season-ending episode of James's TV show, Jesse James is a Dead Man. The episode is set to air at 10 p.m. Eastern on Aug. 9 on the Spike TV network.
The land-speed car also shows that alternative-fuel cars can have a popular appeal, James said.
"We don't have to be dorks to make things environmentally friendly."
But it's not that simple. You can't just strap a bigger blower onto a bigger engine and get speed. The engine itself took three years of development to make power on hydrogen. 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 problem was heat.
"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 car carries three, 5,000-psi tanks of gaseous hydrogen.
"The engineers said it couldn't go over 500 hp," said Urban. "This one makes 740. Sometimes engineers are too smart."
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.
"Not bad for a bunch of guys with no college degrees, huh?" said James of his West Coast Choppers crew.
And even when two members of the team sheepishly admitted that they indeed had college degrees, it was still quite an accomplishment.
Glad to see hot rodders looking into hydrogen. Maybe the future will not be Pelosimobiles and Obamawagons!
Is this that same car/bike guy from TV?
Jesse James is a Dead Man is probably the lamest show Ive ever seen
Mine is, "Everything works great until the current flows..."
Other than that, I don't have a real problem with using it.
What makes hydrogen “green”?
I understand that he set the record immediately after being told by Sandra Bullock that she was in talks to do “Speed 4”.
It looks like some bird crapped all over his arms.
We have plenty of Gasoline for the next 400 Years! Screw the Greenies and the DEMORATS! Build Super Sized SUV’s with Allison Engines for Us! and let Twinkle Toes OBOZO drive around in his Frog Toys! :-)
Jesse James should build a vehicle that runs off of his ego... that sucka would top warp 9 in 3 seconds flat!
Wait till Robert Ford finds out, he’ll shoot that record down.
I’m not much for tats myself,don’t have any,but if he wants them,they do no harm to anyone else.
It was his money fool, he can spend it any way he wants.
I think this speed record may just be the most important development in the history of human or even galactic history.
Oh yeah it does. Almost always from fossil fuels or nukes.
Hydrogen is very similar to a battery, merely an energy storage medium. It has to be made into hydrogen from a true fuel/energy source.
He does have a huge ego, but he's earned the right to have it, I'd say. He's self-made, no government program got him where he is today, unlike some people.
Excluding any pollution caused by isolating the hydrogen, the only byproduct of hydrogen oxidation (burning) is water vapor.
Of course, water vapor is the most prevalent “greenhouse” gas, but don’t tell Al Gore that.
“Jesse James is a Dead Man is probably the lamest show Ive ever seen”
Sorry, that title still belongs to “My Mother, the Car”.
I saw it once when I was 4 years old, and it still haunts me to this day.
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