Unless I'm wrong . . .
The purpose of a streamliner (vehicle) is to carry a person at relatively high speed.
In the case of land speed racing vehicles, the goal is to set a new land speed record. The goal is not to win awards for
photography, sound, smell, or choreography while performing in an illegal "sideshow".
So . . . based on purpose, I would say that the BEST streamliner is the one that has gone fastest officially, and holds the
existing record. This means, based on official evidence, that the fastest streamliner is the best one.
This still leaves me wondering which one is the fastest, because I don't know a universally-acceptable definition of
"streamliner". Are we going to limit this to officially-sanctioned classes that have the word "streamliner" or "streamliners"
in the name of the class?
There are also different sanctioning organizations that promote land speed racing. Each has its own rules and definitions.
We may not ever all be able to agree on which one(s) to favor, regarding validity/acceptance for the purpose of comparing
which streamliner is best.
I'm always more interested in function, compared to aesthetics. And value judgments may not be the most useful things to
be discussing here anyway (Yes, that's a value judgment on my part). I'd rather talk about engineering-related subjects
that apply to going fast(er) in a vehicle that was designed with aerodynamics in mind. For example, could deliberate
substantial heating or cooling of the skin of a car improve its aerodynamics? If so, how/why? How about vibrations (perhaps
provided by an internal speaker)?
