I must chime in and give my personal views and accounts of the car that set the record. I hear so much about the use of composites, aero space alloys, C.A.D design and Computational Fluid dynamics in order to produce better stream liners. Non of this was needed to set this record or the original one. Non of this has been needed up to this point and I dont see it being a major factor in performance in the near future. Experience, ingenuity hard work and a good team dynamic is all that is needed and that goes double for experience! The "Spirit of Rett" was built in a garage by a man who had never built a stream Liner before. He used his intuition, ingenuity and paid attention to those who came before him. You can build a stream liner using unlimited funds, the best engineering and engineers higher education has to offer implementing the best metallurgy "unubtanium" alloys and composites the "Skunk Works" has to offer and not come close to breaking a record. Some cars that have been trying to break this record are very well engineered. They have been trying for years. Nearburg, his team and my brother took another approach to the problem, thought outside the box and it worked.
(1) Money is a tool. Money alone will not make you a winner
(2) Engineering is what happens when people use there experience, pool there knowledge and think outside the box. Properly implemented this gives you a chance to win.
(3) Composites, CAD, Computation Fluid Dynamics and higher education help, these alone will not make you a winner.
(4) The right team is essential for winning. You can have the best of everything and without the right team, it all falls apart.
This is what I have learned through the years and I rarely see it happen any other way.
Just my personal opinion.
