Tough day for Speed Scotland16 | 08 | 2011

SPEED SCOTLAND'S bid to break the 1000cc World land Speed Record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah suffered another disappointment when, after rebuilding the car's engine, one of the chains disintegrated during its first run.

Here Speed scotland driver Rick Pearson gives us his thoughts on a day of frustration, and admits he's keeping his fingers crossed the team's luck changes.

Dateline — Monday, August 15, 2011

People often fail to appreciate the skill in driving fast on the Salt, imagining that it's similar to driving on the autobahn where 150mph speeds are common, rather than the degree with which the juggling of a high powered engine to the available traction and steering response is the key.

But even more people fail to appreciate how tough it is to engineer a car when everything is permanently covered in super corrosive salt and components like our engine/gearbox — which were designed to push 150bph through a lightweight motorbike — are now being asked to push a car which is nearly three-times as heavy and provide three-times as much power.

Heat is on for 313mph speed record

Today the Flower was protesting and needed some TLC, so once the new engine was in, we replaced the chains to ensure there were no issues with stretching from yesterday, and then got though three alternators trying to track down an electrical issue.

When finally we did run, the new master link in the chain fell apart, it just hadn't quite clicked together properly. And we lost power whilst still in second gear.

So a very long and very frustrating day, but the Flower is fettled and ready to run fast first thing tomorrow.

Perhaps our luck will finally change?

Rick Pearson

Caption: Speed Scotland's 'Flower of Scotland' — the small green dot between the lines of orange flags — disappears down Bonneville's 10-mile speed run.

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