ABSTRACT
The highest speed achieved by a vehicle driven through its wheels at the present time (June 1998) is 439 mph (702 kph) averaged over one kilometer. The car that achieved this feat, the Turbinator, was powered by a gas turbine engine which had a maximum power output of 2.8 MW (3750 hp). The car had a frontal area of about 1m2, a drag coefficient of about 0.2 and a mass of 1534 kg. The drag on a body of cross sectional area A moving with speed v through a medium of density p is ½CDpAv2 where CD is the drag coefficient.
