800 MPH or Bust: The North American Eagle Land Speed Record Car

dave gess April 17th, 2008 11:27 AM Link

I love it! LSR is very addictive and these guys obviously have the fever. There are many challenges to that speed not the least of which are the wheels. I wonder what they are running? I think Thrust had some sort of metal disc.

Add it all the factors beyond your control, weather before and during your attempt are vastly important because the dry lakes they run on can get very soft and even sticky if they get any rain. Plus these thing don’t like cross winds very much.

I wish them well.

Nate Snitko April 17th, 2008 11:31 AM Link

It’s more than just the mill that’s from the F-104 from the looks of things. It looks like they just grabbed an F-104 fuselage and tacked some wheels on it. At minimum I see the intake cowlings and the tail assembly, and I’d bet they reused a lot more than that.

I would be very worried that they’ll have too much lift on this thing, and not enough downforce to keep the wheels on the ground. This looks like a crash waiting to happen.

Josh April 17th, 2008 12:29 PM Link

Did Nova, the History Channel, or Discovery do a show about this thing recently (like in the last year or so)? I seem to recall something similar where it caught fire on a test run and they had to rebuild most of it. Maybe I’m thinking of a different LSR group. I wish them all the luck in the world, but it doesn’t look like their rear wheels or support structure is up to the task. And it really does look like they took an F-104 and removed the wings.

Again, good luck to the team.

JN April 17th, 2008 1:16 PM Link

Why not just use the whole plane and turn the wings over to create downforce next time?

c4v3man April 17th, 2008 5:27 PM Link

I honestly don’t see the point of this. Trying to reach the highest speeds in a production car is one thing, but this is just a jet with it’s wings removed. It’s not like it’s beating a speed record, only a land speed record…

But hey, I’m glad they’re living their dreams…

Johnny April 17th, 2008 10:47 PM Link

Yeah, this thing was on a Discovery channel show. They are running disc wheels, no rubber as it wouldn’t stay on the wheel any way, although I forget what type of metal it is.

Jonathan Fung April 17th, 2008 11:25 PM Link

We need to draw up a new definition for car. I think this one falls under “missile.”

Jondolar April 21st, 2008 11:47 AM Link

The North American Eagle team is very disappointed that it has shared image material for this publication. From the type of opinionated journalism this writer has used, it is clear that they have not learned the first rule of journalism - report the facts and let the people jump to their own conclusions.

Also, based on the comments entered here, the whole “Add Your Own Comments” mentality of ignorant armchair quarterbacking is prevalant; especially with a sport the greater majority of the population knows very little to nothing about. I would not presume to make judgements with a few pictures; remember, they’re simply a snapshot in time and do not accurately reflect the overall project or circumstances. Rather, I suggest you go to the web site, spend a bit of time researching the project, and learn what’s really going on BEFORE passing judgement. You will find that we’ve spent 10 years researching and testing this “car” in order to make it as safe as possible for the driver.

Why do thousand of people like NASCAR? Because they go really fast and crash often. So, are those drivers any less “crazy” than us? And finally, to you skeptics out there about this project, I simply say, “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.” It’s not as much about speed as it is the technical engineering and the challenges to keep it safe that come with such an interest that we find gratifying. We got where we are in our civilization because some were willing to take the risks involved to gain the knowledge and apply it to our lives.

The North American Eagle, un “pájaro” de casi 1.300 km/h para un gran récord — Diariomotor April 22nd, 2008 7:02 AM Link

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