Fastest steam-powered vehicle

What to remember

Twelve boilers of distilled water feed superheated steam into a two-stage turbine: that is the heart of Inspiration, a British car designed by Glynne Bowsher and developed by the British Steam Car Challenge team. It is 7.6 m long, 1.7 m wide and weighs 3 tons.

In August 2009, at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Don Wales drove it to an average of 238.679 km/h (148.308 mph) over two consecutive runs across a measured kilometre. That is the highest speed in the steam-powered category.

The same car had already made history during that campaign. With Charles Burnett III at the wheel, it averaged 139.8 mph (225 km/h) over a measured mile, erasing the record Fred Marriott had set in 1906 in the Stanley Steamer, at that point the longest-standing land speed record.