Most car , now and historically , operate on internal burning engine , a type of engine in which the heating and cooling happens within the railway locomotive ’s construction . The external burning engine , then , is an railway locomotive that ’s designed with external warming and cool down functions so as to bring . It sounds kind of windy , but it ’s really quite efficient . And at least two distinguishable types of external combustion locomotive have been used in cars : the steam engine and the Stirling engine .
The steam engine was first seen in machinery , such as railroad train and farm equipment , and under those clayey - obligation loads , the stately steam engine was able to prove itself road - suitable enough to power an automobile . Once a steam locomotive engine comes up to full oestrus , it provides ordered pressure . In hardheaded terms , that means the machine can be driven without the need for a geared infection . One example , the Stanley Rocket , was able to achieve speed up to 127 miles per hour ( 204.4 kilometers per hour)—and this was in 1906 ! Steam - powered cars retained their popularity even after internal burning engine technology was on the rise , in part because , at the time , a car powered by an internal combustion engine needed to be hand - cranked , which was difficult and often grave . The electric starters that we apply today had n’t been excogitate yet . Around the time Ford ’s Model T was launch , raw galvanizing part were begin to make cable car much more convenient . Cost was a cistron in the break , too . The most popular steam cars be about six times as much as the mountain - make Ford , causing them to slowly die out . Steam railcar are now seen as something of a curiosity . They ’re popular with collectors ( Jay Leno is a celebrated steam car partizan ) and their reliableness means that there ’s plenty of vintage examples still around . Steam engine are also a source of intrigue for some researchers and engineers . In fact , many of them believe the efficiency of the steam locomotive , immix with modern technology , give steam - superpower plenty of potential for a comeback .
TheStirling engine , which was developed by a Scots discoverer in the other 1800s , has also done some time power motorcar of the past , although its popularity shillyshally out after its initial rising slope because the materials used to build early variant of the engine could not withstand the uttermost heat necessary to run it . This type of locomotive , interchangeable to the steam engine , apply pistons to produce power , but the heat get from outside the engine . Now that better and stronger materials are uncommitted , the Stirling may have refreshed potential . Stirling engines do declare oneself some reward , like their ability to run on any type of fuel , which inspired Detroit automakers to try out with the Stirling during the 1970s . More recently , in 2012 , a Stirling - power railway car insert the Shell Eco - marathon Europe , a competition for experimental alt - fuel vehicle . The gondola did n’t meet the competition ’s qualifications and was unable to race , but it succeeded in getting people to consider the Stirling engine once again .
