British record-breaker Charles Burnett III successfully set a new land speed record for a steampowered car on Aug. 25, achieving an average speed of 139.843 mph on two runs over a measured mile at Edward’s Airforce Base in California.

Burnett piloted the Goodyear-shod car for both runs reaching a peak speed of 136.103 mph on the first run and 151.085 mph on the second. The new international record breaks the previous benchmark of 127 mph set in 1906 by American Fred Marriott driving a Stanley steamer at Daytona Beach.

This is yet another Land Speed Record for Goodyear, who set a record in 1963 to have the first tyre to exceed 400 mph (Craig Breedlove driving Spirit of America). Since then, Goodyear tyres have also been chosen for the British-made JCB DieselMax car, which set a 328 mph record for Diesel powered vehicles at 328 mph in 2006.

Project Manager Matt Candy said: "The first run took place at 7:27 a.m. when the air temperature was a cool 63 degrees Fahrenheit. The team turned around the car in 52 minutes (with just eight minutes to spare) in preparation for its return run. The British Steam Car takes 2.5 miles to accelerate and after the measured mile, a further 2.5 miles to decelerate – so each run was over 6.5 miles. The FIA requires that the return run takes place within 60 minutes. The times of the two runs are then averaged to obtain the official recorded speed. Compared to the testing we did in Britain, the British Steam Car ran 12 times the distance and twice the maximum speed ­– all within one hour. It’s been a huge challenge for all."

Weighing three tons, the sleek 25-ft British Steam Car is made from a mixture of lightweight carbon-fibre composite and aluminium wrapped around a steel space frame chassis. It is fitted with 12 boilers containing nearly two miles of tubing. Demineralised water is pumped into the boilers at up to 50 litres a minute and the burners produce three megawatts of heat. Steam is superheated to 400 degrees Celsius which is injected into the turbine at more than twice the speed of sound.

The car set the record on 23.0 X 5.0 - 15 front and 28.0 X 4.5 - 15 rear Goodyear Land Speed Record tyres