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POPSBritish Steam-Car Team Sets Sights on 170 mph Engineers are trying for a modest speed, but the technology they're using is no shrinking violet. According to Popular Mechanics, the British Steam Car uses liquefied petroleum gas and a dozen microboilers to generate the 3 megawatts of heat needed to create a steam temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit. The steam flows through 1.86 miles of tubing and several giant valves to a two-stage turbine spinning at 13,000 rpm and drives the rear wheels. The system can turn 10.5 gallons of water a minute into steam at 40 times atmospheric pressure. "It's a total-loss system," project manager Matt Candy told Popular Mechanics. "We're not condensing the steam or anything. We just throw it out the back and, as a consequence, we're only about 10 percent thermally efficient." British Steam Car in successful tests according to the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/3690952/British-Steam-Car-in-successful-tests.html