BSCC News

Timetable/Status as of 28 February 2008

Another productive month for the steam car team draws to a close

Boilers

All of the 3km of tube for the boiler cores has been formed and is being processed for the Vacuum brazing process, undertaken by Bodycote Heat Treatments Limited. After a slight hiccup with the first batch, we now appear to have developed technique for creating a successful joint between the fine tubes of the boiler matrix and the pre and super heaters.

This picture shows a selection of the 14 sets of stainless steel boiler components being assembled in the workshop.
We hope to test the first production boiler in the next week.

Scutineer

The team has had a visit from Lee Kennedy.
Lee is the Technical Committee Co-Chair of the SCTA (Southern Californian Timing Association). The SCTA govern the cars running on the Bonneville Salt Flats. It is important that the car passes its scrutineering for Speed Week. This preliminary visit picked up a number of items on the car that require modification. The team will make sure that these are attended to before Lee’s next visit when he wants to inspect a working car.

Body Shape

The final CFD (Computerised Fluidic Dynamics) runs are being made. We have now fixed the shape of the car. This image shows how the car will look on the Salt.

The car will have two large vertical rear fins, and very low profile intake ducts to feed the boilers

Trailer and Trolley

The support equipment plays an important role in the project. We have commissioned RM Trailers to make a trolley and a trailer for the car.

The trolley will be used to transport the car on the salt. It will allow us to turn the car around for the record run, as well as providing a launching platform for the car. When the car is warming up it exhausts a dangerous amount of pressurised super heated steam. This must be ducted upward to protect the crew and onlookers. It is important that we do not contaminate the salt during the start procedure. The trolley will have a drip tray to capture any water that is exhausted during warm up.

The trailer will allow us to transport the car and trolley to UK testing as well as get the car to and from the salt from our base on Wendover Airfield in the US.

We have designed the trailer and trolley so that they pack into a 40ft-shipping container. It will be a tight fit and we will have to remove the rear fins but this gives us a convenient and cost effective shipping option.

UK Testing

We have booked time at Thorney Island, near Portsmouth, and Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire for our UK tests.

The team are gearing up for a concentrated build effort over the next two months.