Craig Breedlove and others have said that when you're going extremely fast,
that little general elevation changes in the ground result in an airborne vehicle
much of the time during the high-speed part of the run -- which, of course,
makes steering pretty iffy. I think this is one reason that cars will have to
rely on aerodynamics acting on the steered wheel(s), and possibly also on the
fuselage as well.
People who generally aren't car buffs will look at something like the Blue Flame
and say "That's not a car - it's a rocket with wheels." Well, yeah -- it is a rocket
with wheels. But it's self-propelled, and carries a driver, and can be steered, and
is not restricted to running on rails like a train. So the Blue Flame is a car. Many
folks have trouble thinking outside their ho-hum daily lives. And it's a rare (but
admired!) breed of person who designs something new and improved, but technically
within the rules.
As speeds increase and it therefore becomes increasingly difficult for the wheels
to stay in contact with the ground, should/can we expect to see these vehicles
designed to purposefully lift the wheels from the ground at speed, and use wings
to support the vehicle, with only some "token wheels" rolling along, and touching
the ground much of the time? If so, what should the rules be, and how would
they be enforceable? I'm just extrapolating, folks. I think we can all agree that
the current (recognized) and recent (recognized) absolute land speed records
were set -- and recognized and accepted, perhaps without much thought given
to the fact that at times, the entire vehicle may have been briefly airborne during
the record-setting runs!
It may be that there should be a rule that limits the use of hardware or design
intended to intentionally (I know that this is a mushy, hard-to-prove word) lift
the vehicle at high speed. Or not. Actually, it may be very nearly impossible
for any land speed car (or bike) to keep any part in continuous contact with
the ground at (say) 600+ mph. An extreme example would be something that
looks like a jet fighter aircraft flying with the main fuselage just a couple feet
above the ground, and a tiny little wheel (say about 2 inches in diameter?) on
a relatively stiff trailing link, with the wheel touching the ground most of the
time. Seems silly, don'cha think? But how can the existing (or future) rules
specifically prohibit this? Should they?
I suppose that technically we may be able to have enforceable rules that would
allow an official "judge" to measure the marks left on the ground by the wheel(s),
and conclude with reasonable certainty that the wheel(s) were in contact with
the ground for a majority of the measured mile. But I also don't believe that I
will live long enough to see the day when land speed racing is like this.
I do, however, like to encourage out-of-the-box thinking. I admire designers,
builders, and racers who are good at it. This is what keeps progress alive,
thus resulting in new land speed records. And as we should all know, "records
are made to be broken".