I'm amazed that the car stayed on the ground. Both Stanley and Doble made steam cars that had more power than the suspension could handle. A speed record attempt:
"As the Steamer started its run, it was silent except for a low, soft whistle. This rose to a faint whine, and a jetlike white stream flowed from the tail of the car. Soon the head of the driver could hardly be seen in the blur of speed. The car passed the 100 m.p.h. mark and surged up to 197 m.p.h. As it was about to touch 200 m.p.h., however, the racer hit a slight bump on the beach. The light car took off like a wingless glider, soared for about 100 feet at a height of 10 feet, then crashed to the cement-hard sand in an explosion of steam and flames. The driver was flung clear, badly injured but not dead."[1]
Apparently an urban legend, although the article is not suuuuper clear about it:
> These stories persist to this day, although all are false. The truth is that the Stanley Steamer was constructed in such a way that it was impossible for it to blow up.
I'm no expert, but I think it's fair to call a boiler failure an explosion. you're going to have a ton of steam pressure in a confined space. Not like a gasoline or dinamite explosion, but still a hell of a boom.
although maybe it did have a special emergency release valve that was sealed with a weaker metal or something so it couldn't get enough pressure to catastrophically fail.
I'm skeptical of this claim at face value "impossible for it to blow up" but people are smart. it's probably true in a bunch of contexts.
Except Doble cars don't have a traditional boiler. They have a monotube boiler, which only holds a minuscule amount of water at any given time and thus has much less stored energy that could go boom.
"As the Steamer started its run, it was silent except for a low, soft whistle. This rose to a faint whine, and a jetlike white stream flowed from the tail of the car. Soon the head of the driver could hardly be seen in the blur of speed. The car passed the 100 m.p.h. mark and surged up to 197 m.p.h. As it was about to touch 200 m.p.h., however, the racer hit a slight bump on the beach. The light car took off like a wingless glider, soared for about 100 feet at a height of 10 feet, then crashed to the cement-hard sand in an explosion of steam and flames. The driver was flung clear, badly injured but not dead."[1]
[1] https://www.americanheritage.com/stanleys-and-their-steamer