A new lawnmower world speed record

Last month I wrote about Project Runningblade, an attempt to break the world speed record for ride-on lawnmowers. It appears they've had early success. The Daily Mail reports:

A British lawn mower raced into the record books for the second time in two days tonight by setting a new world land speed record.

The unique jet-red lawn mower - codenamed Project Runningblade - hit 86.069mph yesterday adding almost 6mph to a previous top speed set in America four years before.




Tonight rider Don Wales topped the new record time he set himself just 24 hours before with an impressive speed of 87.833mph.

It meant the historic Pendine Sands venue, in west Wales, witnessed two world records on consecutive days over the weekend.

But the hoped for target of speeding through the 100mph barrier across a mile-long section of beach remains elusive.

. . .

Today's new lawn mower record was set after an afternoon of meticulous preparations which included course inspections and test drives.

Once all preparations were complete a record attempt took place over a measured mile in one direction with the driver returning within an hour.

Challengers also have to ensure that the machine used to make the record attempt is built primarily from lawn mower parts.

Proof that it is a genuine lawn mower also has to be shown before the attempt gets going with a public grass-cutting demonstration.

There's more at the link. Here's a video clip of Saturday's run.

Congratulations to all concerned. I understand they're going to try to hit 100 mph at some stage; whether during the current attempt or at some future date remains to be seen.

Peter