Or is it old news?
"Honda have achieved their declared target speed of 400 kph across a
measured mile at the Bonneville International Speedway in Utah. On the
team's third day of running, driver Alan van der Merwe clocked a speed
of 400.450 kph (248.840 mph) at 0721 hours local time in his race legal
Honda 007.
However the time will not be recorded as an official land speed record
because the team were unable to match the same top speed on the return
leg of the journey. The slower second leg reduced the aggregate speed
over both runs to a 393.613 kph (244.580 mph).
Even so the speed reached did convincingly improve on the team's
previous record - set on Monday - of 354.974 kph (220.571 mph) and the
team were overjoyed that Thursday's run proved that the target of 400
kph is possible.
"Having finally reached 400 kph today feels great. 400 kph has always
been the magical number, and having done it in one direction, it must be
possible to do it in both," said van der Merwe after the team's success.
"We'll be trying again tomorrow - that's what it is about now, we just
have to squeeze that little bit more from the car and keep pushing."
The team will make further changes to the car's gear ratios on Thursday
night and return to the salt flats on Friday morning with the aim of
replicating Thursday's top speed over both runs."
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