Peter Lynn – Speed Buggy

 

In terms of mile stones, 2010 in my mind will always stick as the year when buggy aerodynamics were taken seriously. The Dutch and American buggy builders got their heads together and thought about ways to deflect the tremendous drag caused by the buggier and the buggy, The American buggy by Jon Ellis US08 Speed Racer, sadly got shelved and the Dutch team lead by XXtreme designed a front wind deflector for their Apexx Buggy, but it was the New Zealand team, headed by Peter Lynn, who unveiled the real deal…the PL Speed Buggy

For years the record  to beat was Luk Staneks from Canada, the record stood alone for many years at 117.16kmh / 72.80mph.

Then along came the great Arjen van der Tol from Holland and smashed the record with a remarkable 124.00kmh / 77.05mph in 2009 at the NABX.

Then in 2010 at the same event the bar was raised even higher to an incredible   133.40kmh / 82.89mph using a 2.7m Vapor and riding an Apexx Buggy with Haan wheels. All these land mark records were broken on the Ivanpah dry lake bed 40 miles outside Las Vegas USA. This is “The place to be to break wind powered records”. Both were using standard buggies that anyone could buy, a Libre and an Apexx, both were using race kites, Luk on the Jo Jo’s and Arjen on the PL Vapor.

Then on the 6th March 2012, the Peter Lynn Freestyle rider from the USA, Brian Holgate, using the PL Speed Buggy, at Ivanpah dry lake bed and a 2.7m PL Vapor kite raised the bar yet again to 135.34km/h – 84.10mph

I found that day very fitting, as we all know Peter Lynn was the man responsible for reinventing the buggy as we see it today, all those years ago, and now in 2012, a Peter Lynn Buggy, Kite and Rider have have the crown as the fastest kite powered buggy and fastest kite in the world, a quite remarkable achievement, my congratulations go out to the whole Peter Lynn Team, and especially Peter Lynn himself for still having the drive and determination to be a market leader.

Craig Hansen has very kindly shared his photos of the construction, first testing and the runs at Ivanpah during the NABX 2010.

 

New World Record March 2012

 

 

 

18.03.2112 – 2nd World Record Attempt

“Went out to Ivanpah with some friends today to try to break the record again. They were calling for rain in the morning but it tidn’t show up till around 4. The winds were light and multi directional at first. Then it started to pick up. It eventually became sustained at around 25-30.
So I went out an started my runs. My first couple runs were a little slow. Hit arund 56mph. Came back to camp and made some adjustments. Then went back out. The winds were starting to luff out with an occasional good gust. I was on what wound up being my last run and hit a good gust. I was only able to get to 76mph before I sheared my left axle bolt. I slid for about 100′ before stopping. No harm done though. The buggy is heavy enough it didn’t roll. Didn’t break the record but I know have my camera angles dialed in. It started to rain as we packed up so no chance to ride again for atleast a few days.”

Brian Holgate

Peter Lynn Speed Buggy Continued