Team Steam USA

So what's the progress? Got any new pictures?

Hi Clint
A lot of progress is being made. The frame is here and the front and rear suspension are being installed. the mold plug is being finished to make the mold for the engine hatch. The last molded parts is the belly pan. The engine is finished and the preliminary tests went well and is awaiting the final finish on the bigger heatexchanger and should be on the dyno next week. The following week a lot of things will be coming together. I will post some pictures soon. The body is setting over the chassis with the mockup motor in it. I am here working today on anouther project as Nelson has this well in hand. We are getting more suporters in on it every day.
Thanks
Harry

[racingnutsmotorsports.com]

Hi guys
This is a new interview on the radio about the LSR car. A little longer than last time but I got a chance at the end to make Calib happy.
Harry

Hey Harry, How's it goin'? What's October looking like?

Hi Clint

We are progressing rapidly, Of course it is sponsors that make things happen faster. The suspension system has been installed on the front end. As you might imagine it took some R and D to make it right. The front suspension has wheels in line and are an independent system. The rear suspension has to be right and looks very good. It has to be in the right balance to the thrust line or the car will jump up and down during the run. The previous car took several years whereas this new more sophisticated design has been in the works for four months ,starting the chassis June first. The body is finished, the belly pan is finished except for minor details. The chassis is built. The engine has gone through steam runs. The heat exchanger has gone through firing rates and has the best flame travel we have achieved as it travels tightly around the tube nest. The new high pressure pump with the PRV built in is completed. These parts are all coming together and the car should be close to rolling by the end of the month, barring any unforeseen. We still have the same goal of the record before the end of the year. Nelson is doing an excellent job of putting this together and I feel you will be impressed with the professionalism of the project. We have bigger goals than just the record, bringing steam power to the forefront with a modern usable system than can be marketable, not and ego builder but a job builder. More pictures will be put up shortly as this reporting is always a little behind what is going on.
Harry

Hi Harry..
Where does the down force come from on this LSR body style? It looks like a wing from the side view. I might be slightly concerned about lift at Bonneville and losing drive wheel traction on the salt with the torque the engine provides, especially when you try with the MarkVI.. Even at 80 mph push car disconnect, when you hit the throttle, isn't there a chance of breaking the drive tires loose and fishtailing on the sand? On concrete you should be alright I would think..
Thanks.. Ernie

HI Ernie ,
This body shape has been wind tunnel tested and the Speed Demon which the car is modeled after has done 462 mph at Bonneville. It is very clean at a wind tunnel test of .07 factor. We use .08 in our calculations just to be safe. The first car body we did as a comparison was about a .2 so you can see a huge difference. Bow lift is limited as the car has a rubber skirt that is only a 1/4" off the ground to eliminate the ground effect. The side view could be deceiving as the air will flow around the car and not as much over the top.
because of the extra time to do a new car we able to up grade the gear box and add a cone clutch for smooth engagement from the push vehicle. Of course having a professional who already has records at Bonneville helps as he has experience at this. After shop runs we dill do practice runs a Palm Beach Speedway. Then to the NASA 3 mile run. Where We will go for the FIA record, this is the only one that can be taken from the Britt's. Bonneville has a longer run for more speed. This is Nelsons project as I am here again on Saturday with other projects just took a minute to answer. I have some good pictures they have too many bits and I have not had the time to get them out. Check out the Team Steam site for pics as Marla will get some more up soon.

Click here: [www.uslandsteamrecord.com]

Thanks for the support
Harry

Hi Guys
This is a U Tube of what has happened in only four mounths with our LSR project. later this week there will be more info of the MK 5 engine
this video has a basic of the LSR Streamliner and the Team that has achived many milestones in 4 months

[www.youtube.com]

Marla Hoyos
for more information call me at
954.943.8721

Hi Harry.. Just curious if there is a date picked out for the NASA run? Before Dec 21st would be cool just in case the Mayans knew what they were talking about.. Good luck on beating the record..
Ernie

Good to hear from you Ernie.
Things are progressing. The only thing holding us up for a run this year would be waiting for some parts. Even the Mayans won't stand in our way, only parts. Safety equipment, parachutes etc. But it is looking good. The engine has already been test run and is now mounted on the dyno. The hold up was the newer higher capicity pump. We are running anouther engine today so we will probaly have to wait until the first of the week for test dyno runs. This will varify what torque and cuttoff settings we will need to run. The shorter the run the longer the cuttoff we will run. Of course Bonnivlle is next year. our first runs will be in front of our shop then at Palm Beach Speed Way. We will be running a longer cuttoff as this is the shortest track run and we can publish the speed on this short course but is not for a record. The main run will be at Nasa strip as that is three miles long. We expect to beat the recoard then again at Bonneville for a faster run as it is longer. Nelson is on top of this project and no one is more motivated.
Harry

Got a date for Palm Beach Speedway? Went to Bonneville in 2011 but Cyclone wasn't there. Any news is appreciated.

Hi Clint
Sorry for the delay in getting out info on the LSRcar. At the present it is in the trailer going to the PRI show in Orlando. The engine is doing runs on the Dyno and we are very pleased as it will more than deliver what we need. We will let out dyno results soon. When the car returns a lot of final assembly will happen. Of course this goes faster with sponsors. That is what sometimes makes the schedule. We have some great sponsors and more are lining up.
Harry

Hi Clint
Here is another up date On the LSR car. This is at the PRI show in Orlando they set up last night and the show opens Thursday morning. The space was donated because of the uniqueness of the car. Things will move a little more rapidly on this project. The engine will finish its dyno runs and we can properly graph the torque hp and water rate as it will need to vary with the length of the run. A shorter run will use as slightly longer cutoff for acceleration whereas a short cutoff in balance with the run time to give the highest speed with the water rate. This actual run data is being compared with the predicted data for accuracy. This project was only started six months ago and we feel we have made a lot of progress.
Harry

Thanks Harry, the final paint-job looks great. Couldn't think of a better reason to go to Florida in the winter time. Thanks!

Hi Clint
Come on down the weather is great.
Just returned from the show. The car went over extremely well. It was really neat how Marla and Nelson new so many people in the business and are so well respected. The Mickey Thompson sponsors (tires) had a group there and there were very pleased. Rain Magic sponsors and others were there. We are still looking for others for sponsorships.
I did promise you some dyno info. It is continually up dated as running in different places depending on the length of the run so as to very the torque. The engine on the dyno will easily exceed well over 100 hp and has run to 1015# torque at 35%cutoff. At the West Palm Speed Way we will be running the longest cutoff approximately 15% where at the Cape about 10 % and 7-8 % at Bonnieville where we only need 200#. At West Palm there will be no record set because of the length of the run however we do think it will be impressive. There is no specific date for this as yet as arrangements with the track have to be made but we will let everyone know when it gets closer.
Harry

More stuff from the show in Orlando
Harry


[www.racecar-engineering.com]

Great article, it needs cleanup however. Double statements, extra words etc. Congrats, Keith

Andrew Cotton wrote the article!

This Magazine is recognize worldwide!

Congratulations Team Cyclone!

M



[www.racecar-engineering.com]

more stuff from the Orlando show
Harry


Click here: Performance Racing Industry 2012 | Radio RPM

[radiorpm.com]#

Hi Harry..

Have you decided on a fuel yet for the record run?
Tia.. Ernie

HLS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Clint
> Come on down the weather is great.
> Just returned from the show. The car went over
> extremely well. It was really neat how Marla and
> Nelson new so many people in the business and are
> so well respected. The Mickey Thompson sponsors
> (tires) had a group there and there were very
> pleased. Rain Magic sponsors and others were
> there. We are still looking for others for
> sponsorships.
> I did promise you some dyno info. It is
> continually up dated as running in different
> places depending on the length of the run so as to
> very the torque. The engine on the dyno will
> easily exceed well over 100 hp and has run to
> 1015# torque at 35%cutoff. At the West Palm Speed
> Way we will be running the longest cutoff
> approximately 15% where at the Cape about 10 % and
> 7-8 % at Bonnieville where we only need 200#. At
> West Palm there will be no record set because of
> the length of the run however we do think it will
> be impressive. There is no specific date for this
> as yet as arrangements with the track have to be
> made but we will let everyone know when it gets
> closer.
> Harry


200# of what?

Hi Ernie
Always good to hear from you, and we do look into your sugestions.
What fuel are we going to use?.....all of them.... most likely we wil use De Lamonene from orange peal combined with other bio fuels and even regular fuels JP8, diesel, etc. Maybe different fuels depending on the run place. Of course there is more than Bonneville to run.

Hi Heavy
The 200# is the torque necessary for the right amount of thrust with with the ratio and wheel diameter and the RPM needed to get the desired speed. This appears not to be a problem but dyno runs are necessary to get the cutoff just right for each run. To get the sweet spot is necessary. We want more than to just beat the record.
Harry

Thanks Harry
I hope you at least got I chuckle out of the one I sent down last weekend.. But for timing that would have been a knockout in marketing dept..

Have you completed the dyno testing yet? I was telling my son, the mechanic, about the prelim dyno #'s, and he was blown away..
I can't wait for the record run!! Take care my friend.. Ernie

Hi Ernie
We will be doing more dyno testing to get as much info before the car is ready to receive it. When it goes in the car I want to leave it there as there is too much work on other projects to do. Nelson will be draging it all over the country.
Harry

I had just sent the Bulletin to press when in comes this article from the premier international professional racing mag. Wish I had it before so I could have used it too.

The author had been to the November Performance Racing Show in Orlando last November and was really enthusiastic. It sure shows in the article. Even though the body may have a lower drag coefficient than the multi-record-holder of Ron Main, it isn't necessary to tell Ron about it.

Karl

Pompano Beach, FL

Okay, okay, so the files had to be squeezed pretty hard to get under the 1M limit and now you can't read Andy Cotton's amusing and thorough interviews or notice where the team is going to set the outright wheel driven land speed record next. (?!?)
Here is the whole article in text. Well, I did correct three typos and make no apologies for being a compulsive editor.
________________

February 2013 • www.racecar-engineering.com

STEAM POWER
The need for Steam
It took more than 100 years for the British to claim the steam land speed record from the Americans. Now, they want it back...

BY ANDREW COTTON

Diagram of the six-cylinder radial-format Cyclone Engine
Profile cross-section of the Mark V automotive engine.

The tailfin of the Team Steam USA car bears the figure 1777. This is the year that is America's proudest, a date when the country was declared independent and a year in which the nation defeated the British army. Team Steam driver Nelson Hoyos hopes that he will be the man to take the steam driven land speed record from the British, who claimed it in 2009, back to the USA with a 200mph run, and intends to extend that to 400mph by the end of 2013.
The US held the record between 1906 and 2009, when the British Inspiration team took the record up to 148mph. As the British also hold the outright Land Speed Record (as this is written), the rivalry is as intense as ever.
Not that Hoyos carries any malice. Far from it, although he takes great delight in the fact that the British spent £1 Om claiming the record, and he intends to take it back on a budget less than one tenth of that. The team will take an engine that was developed for the military, and place it into a chassis that has already proven itself up to 440mph with a piston engine.
'The engine is unique,' says Hoyos. 'It is a six cylinder radial design, and has a unique spider bearing, which is held to the crankshaft. All the connecting rods are connected to the spider bearing.
'We can get even-fire cylinders instead of odd-fire cylinders. In the standard engine there is a condenser at the bottom of the engine that holds the water that is piped through the cylinder to pre-heat it. It is then piped up through a combustor, which has 1200 linear feet of tubing. We have six injectors firing an open flame in a circular fashion, hence the cyclone effect, so we are superheating this water. We take it from 700 degrees to 1400 degrees when it comes out at over 3200psi.
'It is injected into the top of the piston, pushes the piston, and it has ports on the back of the chamber and exhausts back into the condenser. We have a dry sump system to bring it back into the water tank.' The engine creates 200bhp, which is not a great deal, but it generates 1100 ft/lbs of torque. Such torque and relatively low speeds mean that the car does not require gears, and so has direct drive and works with cog belts, like a Harley Davidson bike. The car will be pushed to 60mph before the engine will kick in and drive the car up to 200mph in the first quarter of 2013, if all goes according to plan.
Following that the team intends to go faster, and has a target of first 300mph, and then 400, although they realise that significant car modifications would be necessary to hit this target. The car body is,based on Ron Main's Speed Demon car, and from the cockpit forward, Main's design is unchanged, The rear has been modified to accommodate a much smaller engine, so the track has been reduced by 18 inches to just 30 inches, the chassis is sorter and the tail fin smaller, making the car even more aero efficient.
'We licensed the body design,' says Hoyos. 'We duplicated the car that has gone 440mph so we know that the aero works. We have shortened the car a little bit and made it a bit thinner at the back - as we are direct drive we didn't have to have a differential. Ron's car has a bubble in the back for the tyres but this car didn't need it. We think this is a little bit better than his, but it works. The chassis underneath is a dragster. We have the in-line wheel setup, which means that we have it inside the cockpit so nothing is exposed, and if we lose a tyre I have another holding it up.
'We have a big bulkhead between the driver and the engine. The engine is two feet by two feet we drive a pump, a 20 gallon water tank, and batteries to drive the pump system. We have two goals: one is to take the record away from the Brits, the other is to validate this motor concept and put it into a automobile application down the road.
The programme is designed as a marketing tool for Cyclone Technologies, which reckons that the engine can run underwater, or in space, Able to run on any fuel that can burn, the team believes it has something that will benefit production cars in the future (see sidebar, p22).
'This is an all-fuels engine," says Hoyos. 'It does not need fuel to run. It needs fuel as a BTU source to heat the water to steam. It could run on diesel fuel, vegetable oil, orange delaminine, jet fuel, regular gas - whatever can burn, It makes it interesting for potential world motor, because we are not limited to a specific fuel source. It is also water lubricated, so it has no oil in the system at all, so environmentally it is great and it has little moving parts. It's ceramics and composites so it is durable and we think it does have potential in a vehicle for the world down the road.
________

The team has another engine in the workshop, an increase in capacity to 3-litres, produces 2650ft/lbs of torque and can take the car beyond 400mph. 'At that point we would have to change the car around a little bit to accept that kind of power, but I think this car could do it,' says Hoyos, a drag racer who is used to such speeds. 'Ron Main has proven with a piston engine that he can do 400mph safely, 26 times, so we know the car is proven, so now it is how do we apply it to our technology. This project is less than six months old, it requires safety equipment, some plumbing and electrics, the engine is dyno testing at the moment to get patterns so that I can learn how to drive it. This makes an enormous amount of power from the start. Our goal is by February to be testing.
The plan is to hit 200mph, before prepping the car for a 250mph run at Bonneville salt flats in the summer. The new engine will then be fitted with a target of 400mph, nearly three times the current speed. 'The goal is to be above 300mph with it, and if we can go 400, that would be super but that will be a challenge,' says Hoyos. 'Once you go a little faster, everything becomes exponentially harder.
'Although we have the power to go 400, it would take more time. The suspension would change and the car would change. The major overall piece will be the same, but the car will be longer and wider, and the body will change because we have a motor which is wider. Then weight distribution changes, so we have to go back into the wind tunnel to check those changes. I anticipate doing a bigger wing at the back of the car - the original car that Ron Main has is 6ft longer, has a larger rear wing, and is also 18 inches wider, so we may have to go for his design completely to go with the power we're going to have.



"As you go faster, everything becomes exponentially harder"

The cyclonic aspect of the engine in impressively fiery action


CYCLONE POWER

This is an engine that its designer reckons could be taken to production cars, reducing the cost of motoring, improving 'green' credentials and changing the way that third world countries generate power.
It all sounds too good to be true. 'The powerplant has tremendous efficiencies because multi-fuel capabilities, and the reason they have high efficiency is that they can operate at high temperatures,' says its inventor, Harry Schoell. 'That has been the plague for small engines. You know how tough to build that is - you have to build the turbine. The turbine has a water rate, how much water you have to evaporate to make the engine go. The turbine has one speed that it operates at, very high water rates and very low efficiency. With a piston engine you have a 20-40 lb water rate. This has seven. The heat exchanger is much smaller.
'We can operate at very high temperatures and pressures so we have a half-litre engine that puts out 1000ft/lbs of torque. You don't have to have any special gearing, and we have an engine that burns any kind of fuel, is not expensive to manufacture, is very low polluting, and we have something that is commercial. This can be used in cars, buses, trucks, and it's clean and inexpensive power. In most applications you don't need a transmission. This will run underwater, can run in outer space - everything.
'It just takes time to get it there. The LSR is to prove that we have a viable product. People have to see it. We have generators running, but to see something like this has excitement to it. We also have a boat we are going to run to show the viability of the product. It is amazing to us, we have been at it for a few years, and every time we show it people haven't heard about it. We have grown making generators and products for other applications.
That's all fine, but in a production car, how much further could a Cyclone engine go? 'If you make an automobile go somewhere, you always hear rpms. That's because these engines don't have any torque at the bottom end so you have to scream them up high, run through a bunch of gears, and gear losses can be 10-18 per cent. We don't have any. We start off with torque at 1rpm. Rpm is different for us. Theirs is revolutions per minute, ours is revolutions per mile. We can run one mile with a standard car and the engine would turn 1700 times. Not 1700rpm.
'You could go perhaps 1.5 times further in mileage. On a straight highway, you can get a 20-25 per cent gain, but in the city the engine doesn't have to idle. When you move, it moves. Point to point, you are talking revolutions per distance.
'It would do a great job in city buses. And it is not only mileage - less expensive fuels can be burned. You can fill it with anything: gasoline, diesel, alcohol - it makes no difference. You will burn less fuel with the higher BTU, but sometimes the higher BTU fuels are the least expensive. The engine can run on kerosene and biofuel. We run algae fuel from oil, so it doesn't have to go to the refinery again and be turned into something else. We have run powdered coal through the fuel injector. Extractions from chicken farms and pig farms can go to a digester, where they go into a tank and methane can be pumped, light the methane with a match and make electricity.
Things like that can go into third world countries and power them easily. Solar has 5-8 per cent efficiency, and how do you store it? Lead acid batteries? That's not a good thing. If you use a thermal battery, it never runs out, is inexpensive, and at the end of the life cycle is fertiliser. You can run a cyclone engine with less expensive heat collectors, and generate electricity in the 20-25 percent range. You can store the heat and use it down when you want to.
So, the first target is to earn the right to be the fastest kettle in the world. After that, there is a dedicated plan to take the technology to schools and universities to educate students as to how it works. From there, the sky could literally be the limit.

Did the Dyno tests go good Harry? What's the word on Cape Canaveral? Engine in the car? Spring is around the corner...

Hi Clint
Dyno testing is going well. The engine development is ahead of the car. This is a project for which the engine is sponsored by Cyclone and the rest comes in from private sponsors. The only holdup at this time is sponsorship money to install the safety equipment and wiring.
We would never go to race without winning. Nelson is a winner. He would kill me if we drug a car to Bonneville using sponsors money and could not even outrun the push car. When we go we will be prepared and will do what we plan. Look at the car and you can see it is well planned, not a junk yard dog. The purpose is to demonstrate our viable Rankine cycle engine for a production automobile. I believe Cyclone is the only viable entry in that arena for almost a hundred years. Get behind Nelson's car with some sponsorship so that SACA is not just the steam thingy club.
Harry

I only count four slams in this last post. Anybody see a fifth?

All files from this thread

File Name	File Size		Posted by	Date
LSR new.jpg	26.3 KB	open | download	HLS	06/07/2012	Read message
photo.jpg	22.7 KB	open | download	HLS	06/07/2012	Read message
New LSR body.jpg	364.7 KB	open | download	HLS	07/17/2012	Read message
drag3.JPG	248.4 KB	open | download	HLS	07/17/2012	Read message
DRAGSTER FRAME.jpg	164.5 KB	open | download	HLS	07/17/2012	Read message
new LSR nelson chassis.jpg	520 KB	open | download	HLS	07/21/2012	Read message
LSR car.jpg	109.1 KB	open | download	HLS	11/27/2012	Read message
photo1.jpg	822.2 KB	open | download	HLS	11/28/2012	Read message
RacecarTeamSteamUSA-1.jpg	109.9 KB	open | download	Karl Petersen	02/05/2013	Read message
RacecarTeamSteamUSA-2.jpg	107.8 KB	open | download	Karl Petersen	02/05/2013	Read message
RacecarTeamSteamUSA-3.jpg	110.5 KB	open | download	Karl Petersen	02/05/2013	Read message
RacecarTeamSteamUSA-4.jpg	129.3 KB	open | download	Karl Petersen	02/05/2013	Read message
scan0001.jpg	787.8 KB	open | download	HLS	04/09/2013	Read message
Landing Craft..jpg	182.2 KB	open | download	Rolly	04/15/2013	Read message
GG MOM finished.jpg	140.4 KB	open | download	HLS	04/15/2013	Read message
LSR Dyno.jpg	428.5 KB	open | download	HLS	05/22/2013	Read message