''Pioneer 1'' is a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
''FIA'' Group VII
[Soviet Cars](_blank)
(retrieved 25 November 2015) land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...
car built in 1960 under the guidance of sportsman and engineer Ilya Aleksandrovich Tikhomirov.
Derived from the Kharkov-L1, the body was aluminum and the wheels made from
magnesium alloy
Magnesium alloys are mixtures of magnesium (the lightest structural metal) with other metals (called an alloy), often aluminium, zinc, manganese, silicon, copper, rare earths and zirconium. Magnesium alloys have a hexagonal lattice structure, w ...
. It was powered by two
gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
engines ( each at 50,000 rpm) mounted either side of the driver.
The second stage of each turbine drove a
planetary reduction gearbox
An epicyclic gear train (also known as a planetary gearset) consists of two gears mounted so that the center of one gear revolves around the center of the other. A carrier connects the centers of the two gears and rotates the planet and sun gea ...
, mated to a central driving unit pirated from the Kharkov-L1.
The turbines were fitted with a
water-methanol injection system.
''Pioneer 1'' weighed in at , making it eligible for ''FIA'' Class 1 ( and under). It was claimed to have set a Class 1 record of for the measured kilometer at the
Baskunchak
Lake Baskunchak (russian: Баскунчак; kk, Басқұншақ, translit=Basqunshaq) is a salt lake of 115 km² in Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, located at , about 270 km north of the Caspian Sea, and 53 km east of the Volga. Si ...
dry
salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...
, and was the first Soviet land speed racer to exceed .
In 1962, the power of the engines was increased to , while weight rose to .
The improved car raised the Class 1 and Soviet national records for the measured kilometer to .
In 1963, Tikhomirov modified ''Pioneer 1'' even further, to create ''
Pioneer 2M
The Pioneer 2M was a Soviet Group VII land speed record car built in 1961 under the guidance of sportsman and engineer Ilya Aleksandrovich Tikhomirov. Based on the 1960 record car ''Pioneer 1'', the body was made of aluminum and the wheels of a m ...
''.
Notes
See also
*
List of vehicle speed records
The following is a list of speed records for various types of vehicles. This list only presents the single greatest speed achieved in each broad record category; for more information on records under variations of test conditions, see the specific ...
External links
Autosport forum(more information)
{{commonscat, Pioneer 1
Gas turbine land speed record cars
Soviet automobiles
Cars introduced in 1960
1960s cars