The Carbinite LSR streamliner was designed by Rob Freyvogel and Eric Ahlstrom with the intent of advancing the wheel driven land speed record past 500 MPH. With numerous streamliners now exceeding 400 MPH fairly regularly, racers have begun to covet the 500 MPH mark and the Carbinite LSR team has adopted an innovative approach. According to team literature, previous efforts and current mindset in streamliner construction has focused on keeping the car aerodynamically neutral (no lift or downforce). This typically requires the addition of significant amounts of weight in order to obtain enough traction to support acceleration. This philosophy is confronted by two major problems.
- Bonneville salt conditions have deteriorated to the point that the racing surface is no longer as flat as it once was. This causes the car to “skip” across the salt at higher speeds, breaking traction
- The increased weight of the cars leads to slower acceleration and cars may run out of track prior to reaching maximum speed.
The Carbinite streamliner is designed to achieve optimum aerodynamic efficiency in a much lighter package that incorporates aerodynamic control surfaces designed to maintain the proper angle of attack and optimum aerodynamic efficiency without requiring excessive performance limiting weight. Extensive CFD modeling was used to develop the body shape and the internal chassis structure.It was also determined that a single engine developing 1000+ Hp would be sufficient to to achieve the desired speed with the optimized vehicle.
