Fastest Piston Engine Car: 'Speed Demon' sets world record (VIDEO) Bonneville, UT, USA -- Veteran driver George Poteet, from Memphis, Tennesee driving the Poteet and Main "Speed Demon" Streamliner,during the Mike Cook Shootout at the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah, averaged 439.562 mph over the measured mile - setting the new world record for the Fastest Piston Engine Car,
according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/.
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the fastest car powered by dry cell batteries: the Oxyride Racer, which achieved an average speed of 105.95 km/h (65.83 mph).
Poteet (a driver with more runs over 400 than anyone in Bonneville history) piloted the sleek Speed Demon to an incredible 439.562 miles per hour (that's 707.408 kilometers per hour for the metric among us) average* speed for the measured mile.
In order to qualify for record run the car had to cover the mile once in each direction.
*He actually reached a maximum speed of 462 mph, according to the Poteet & Main team, during one run on the salt.
That makes the Poteet and Main Speed Demon the fastest-ever wheel-driven, piston-engined car in history. No other piston-engined car has ever achieved this speed.
The streamliner was built by Ron Main in his race shop in Canoga Park, CA. The Speed Demon's 2,500-horsepower turbocharged V-8 368 ci "Hellfire" engine was built by Kenny Duttweiler in Ventura, CA. It has a Liberty 7-speed transmission.
