YOUNG engineers blasted their way into the record books at The Heathland School in Hounslow on Friday.
Students at the secondary school in Wellington Road South more than doubled the existing mark for the fastest model rocket-powered car.
The winning team's car Mobius, named after the famous mathematician, reached a phenomenal 204mph - obliterating the existing record of 88mph set in Birmingham two years ago. Incredibly, three other cars also beat the old record, achieving speeds ranging from 128 to 151mph.
After 18 months spent working with experts from the Bloodhound SSC team, behind Britain's upcoming bash at the land speed record, it was all over in a flash this morning.
The six cars, five of which were designed and built by pupils and the sixth created by teachers, sped across the 80 metre sports court in just over a second.
Once they had crashed into the protective barrier - at such velocity the blankets burst into flames during practice - pupils had just an hour in which to prepare them for the return run.
The final speed was based on the average over the two runs, meaning pupils had to work furiously to repair any damage.
Jaswant Thandi, of the Bloodhound SSC team, has been working with staff and students at the school, who all helped with each other's cars.
He said: "This was the culmination of a year and a half's hard work by students and I'm delighted for them that they've broken the record - especially by such a huge margin. There's nothing left of the winning car because it disintegrated into a thousand pieces when it hit the blankets at the end of the second run, but it did it's job, so everyone's happy."
Provided the world record is confirmed by Guinness, a process expected to take about a month, it will be the second to have been broken by the school in the space of five months.
In February this year, 801 students took part in the world's biggest science experiment - shattering the previous best of 572.
