The Fastest Lawn Mower in the World


(Video Link)


Last weekend, American Bobby Cleveland took his lawn mower out to the Bonneville Salt Flats and accelerated to a record-breaking 96.529 MPH. This performance took the title away from British driver Don Wales, who had reached a speed of 87.833 MPH on his lawn mower.

Link via The Presurfer

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Hmmm. With a rotating blade, there is a speed range where a blade's cycle is useless because relative to the grass, the blade's momentum would be insufficient*. Then, a bit faster and in spite of the blade going the 'wrong' direction, it would still sever the grass. So.... I submit that replacing the mechanical blade and with a stationary one would leave more torque to drive wheels while remaining a proper mower (just requires a bit more speed).
* Fun mental experiment -
1.picture a blade spinning under a mower at just under the speed required to sever grass.
2. Begin rolling the mower which adds more speed to one side of the blades cycle... eventually enough to sever grass only when the forward side is nearly perpendicular to the direction of the mower's movement, and even then, only on the outer edge where the blade is traveling the fastest.
3. Continue slowly accelerating. Plot in your mind the area of the blade that is now at cutting speed and notice that this area is growing.
4. Take a moment to consider the moment when we have achieved such a speed that even the 'back side of the blade' is now cutting grass... which is to say, the forward facing edge of the blade, traveling in the opposite direction of the mower, is now striking grass in spite of its design.
5. Plot the cutting areas shape throughout this accelleration.
6. Imagine how the cut of grass varies (3D translation of our cutting area) throughout this experiment.
thanks for playing :-) - Jim
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Lawnmower? That?

So if I make something that looks like a helicopter but without any trace of blades on it to take off the ground and I landrace it somewhere, I still can call it a helicopter?

Even if that thing would go over 200, I'd still call it a bad buy since you cannot cut a single piece of grass with it - Where's the cutting blades of that stupid thing???
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I'm sorry, but in keeping with the modern climate of Clarksonism under which we live, I believe that the title of this article should be changed to "The Fastest Lawn Mower..... (dramatic pause) ....in the World".
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