Steam Engine

Our video this week is a five-decade-old series Land Rover that has been converted to run on steam. Yes. You read that correctly. Retiree Frank Rothwell from Oldham in England says he spent about £24,000 building the vehicle and about 400 hours of his time. He plans to drive Mildred to work this summer, and take it to shows. Best of all, he says, “It keeps me out of the pub.” This is a five-decade-old series Land Rover that has been converted to run on steam. That’s right, it swaps the regular engine for a steam-puffing, chimney-clad, coal-fired burner. At a cost of £24,000, the deep irony of the build isn’t lost on us. The car that became the Defender, itself a vehicle that EU law has deemed archaic and no longer fit to meet emissions rules, has been adapted […]

After its first successful low-speed run last week, the British Steam Car was taken to the MoD’s Thorney Island facility near Portsmouth for a series of higher speed runs on Wednesday and Thursday. Early reports are of the car and crew performing well, with the steam generators building pressure successfully and the safety systems shutting down the car quickly when a small defect was detected. The team of six engineers is learning to turn the car quickly and prepare it for a return run within the allotted time of one hour. The British Steam Car’s target velocity is 170mph, which would net them one of the longest-held speed records, set by Fred Marriott, who achieved a 121.57mph flying kilometre record in the Stanley brothers’ Rocket at the 1906 Florida Speed Week. The target speed will also net the team and […]