I did not mean to imply that the 75mph record was a pathetic attempt, but instead that 75mph would be considered pathetic by the average motorcycle rider. After all that's the kind of speed you would expect out of the 12bhp restricted version of the Cagiva Mito 125 (my 1966 Morini Corsaro 125 had a published top speed of 70mph). And yes I do know there is a vast difference between a theoretical top speed and the kind of flying mile record you could post. In the context of many 150+mph production bikes, 75mph is pretty pathetic.
I really do apologize for leaving out 'Volta' the school built 500Kg class LSR vehicle. I think it was a splendid effort, but I kind of feel it rather makes my point about the Bluebird team at the time they set the 136mph record. Volta was simple and it worked. They didn't run before the could walk.
Bluebird were a professional team, that is people were paid money to design, build, and run the car/s. To start with they were very unprofessional in how the team was run. No one was in control of costs, parts would be ordered by motorcycle courier, rather than actually planning ahead so they could come in the post. Sponsorship deal were written that COST the team money. There was a lot of politics and empire building in the team. How do I know this? Because I was at a meeting with the person who took over management of the team. He was original in charge of a TV production company who were making a documentary about the team, but realised they weren't going to get it unless someone stepped in and picked up the pieces.
Fundamentally the car had a drive system that simply didn't work properly. A spectacular example of this was when the Sheffield University Motors and Drives group brought their Formula 3 car along to a private Hawker batteries event. The torque at stall was practically zero and it had to be pushed off the line. Its pass down the track was then amongst the slowest of the day. Only a standard milkfloat and a 1898 Kreiger taxi were slower. Why a second car needed to be built, when the main problem was the power train, I don't know. Surely the power train should have been sorted out, or the system dumped and one that was actually reliable fitted. Zytek, who supply engine managment to F1 and many other formulae got the Sheffield motor to work well with their controller. It was only propshaft problems and the inability to put in a fast qualifying lap that prevented the Panoz Q9 from making and impact at LeMans with Zytek hybrid drive.
I had to deal with a lot of bad publicity from the Bluebird attempts, particularly as they had been getting national press interest from their confident claims to crack 300mph. Maybe I am too critical, but it was a bad time to be promoting electric vehicles. Wouldn't you expect a purpose built streamliner with 300hp to do rather better?
I have built many vehicles, though not any LSR projects. I developed a Porsche 914 EV, Clare Bell's #13 to the point where it would keep pace with (and pass) 3 series beemers, RX7s, 911s, etc. running in a NASA event around the Firebird circuit and do so over a 15 lap distance (sadly we were eliminated from the actual EV race, which we had a VERY good chance of winning, when a fail safe system, failed safe!). In testing on the runways at Alameda we had an indicated 135mph with the power turned down to a nominal 35Kw.
