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#1
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Jay Leno fires up 1870 steam engine
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/index.shtml?vidID=65398
First time it had run in 100 years, he says.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#2
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What do you know? A worthwhile thread on OD.
That was cool!
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1959 Gravely LI, 1963 Gravely L8, 1973 Gravely C12 1982 380SL 1978 450 SEL 6.9 euro restoration at 63% and climbing 1987 300 D 2005 CDI European Delivery 2006 CDI Handed down to daughter 2007 GL CDI. Wifes |
#3
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take three
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#4
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See, I'm not just an opinionated a$$ -- mostly, but there's more going on.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#5
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Now that was interesting! Thanks for posting it!
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1999 SL500 1969 280SE 2023 Ram 1500 2007 Tiara 3200 |
#6
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Leno is way cool in my book. At first I thought, 'how can this guy fill Johnny Carson's shoes?' But in his own way, he's just as good, IMO.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#7
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Leno is a real car guy. Never met him in person but I get the sense he isn't stuck up, ie you could hang around and talk cars with him.
The gas bill to run the boiler must be amazing!
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1999 SL500 1969 280SE 2023 Ram 1500 2007 Tiara 3200 |
#8
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Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh has an old James Watt design/style engine that they run twice or three times a day. I think it was used for pumping water out of a mine originally.
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1977 300d 70k--sold 08 1985 300TD 185k+ 1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03 1985 409d 65k--sold 06 1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car 1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11 1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper 1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4 1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13 |
#9
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I've been interested in steam engines ever since I met this old guy in Seattle while driving cab. He was an 89 year old widower, born around 1890, no kids, cool as could be and we became buds. He told of his uncle who had had polio and couldn't crank the old gas cars, so he'd had a couple of steamers -- a Stanley and a White.
Jim told me they would get out of mud way quicker than a gas car -- very smooth torque -- and were almost silent. Bill Lear, of Leer Jet fame, tried to revive auto steamers in the 60s or 70s but he tried to go with turbines. Someone asked him if he was interested in the work done all these years with piston steam by backyard tinkerers and he said "we have a word for those guys: cranks." Well, he might have had the right idea with jets and 8 track tape players but his turbine steam project never did take off, in spite of $$millions of wasted funds. Maybe if he'd shown a little more respect to the piston "cranks," he might have had some success.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#10
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There's an engineer on the foundation board of the college where I teach who holds the world speed record for a steam powered vehicle. I haven't seen the vehicle but I think he ran it at Bonneville. This is him:
http://www.steamcar.co.uk/Challenge/Barber-Nichols.htm Looks like he may have had something to do with designing the turbine that Lear used.
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1977 300d 70k--sold 08 1985 300TD 185k+ 1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03 1985 409d 65k--sold 06 1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car 1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11 1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper 1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4 1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13 |
#11
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It's amazing that supposedly a basically stock Stanley Steamer went about that fast at Daytona Beach in 1907. I don't know that much about the turbine but the beauty of the piston design was that the engine was still when the vehicle was at rest. Suppose you were stuck in deep mud, which was fairly common in the early days of motoring.
With a piston steamer, you would let the steam into the cylinder slowly so that the torque was slow and even. With a piston engine, you essentially have a series of rapid taps with a hammer of sorts on the flywheel being transferred by a clutch which if released too fast dumps way too much torque at once on the wheel -- for dealing with mud anyway. Maybe a turbine could have a similar ability -- it would have to be geared down quite a bit, perhaps the turbine could be still when at a stop but somehow it seems you wouldn't have the same ability. http://www.stanleymotorcarriage.com/GeneralTechnical/GeneralTechnical.htm
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#13
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about 2.5 miles to the gallon
There's a difference between the US and the rest of the world: here, you can pretty well drive anything you want... PreviousNext
In spite of its rather military provenance, we think Jay's tank car looks terrific.
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Last edited by LaRondo; 03-05-2007 at 04:44 AM. |
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