Bad weather heaped more disappointment yesterday on the Hampshire team hoping to break a century-old world land speed for steam-powered vehicles.

Yesterday marked the fourth successive day that the team have had to cancel the attempt by the 25ft-long British Steam Car at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The team, based in Lymington, is aiming to beat the 127mph reached by American Fred Marriott in a Stanley steam car in 1906 at the Daytona Beach Road Course.

It is the longest officially-recognised land speed record, but the British teams hope to enter the record books by reaching a target velocity of 170mph.

The team was working on fixing a minor electrical fault which forced the cancellation of yesterday's attempt when high winds rolled in, forcing the team to also abandon efforts today.

A spokesman said the team will continue to work on the car and carry out static testing in readiness for a shot at the record tomorrow, technical and weather conditions permitting.

The spokesman said: ''The winds were reaching around 55mph to 60mph. The car cannot run when winds reach even 15mph, so it really wasn't possible to run today.''

The vehicle has managed to reach speeds of more than 130mph during a series of test runs after the team arrived in the US last month.

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) officials are due to calibrate and record the team's official world record attempt.

The driver for the record bid is Charles Burnett III, a nephew of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, who made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999 for an offshore water speed record of 137mph.

Other team members include the 48-year-old test driver and father-of-two Don Wales, nephew of the late speed ace Donald Campbell and grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell.

Weighing three tons, the British Steam Car is made from a mixture of lightweight carbon-fibre composite and aluminium wrapped around a steel space frame chassis.

Using Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), the car is fitted with 12 boilers containing nearly two miles of tubing. Demineralised water is pumped into the boilers at up to 50 litres a minute and the burners produce three megawatts of heat.

Steam is superheated to 400C and injected into the turbine at more than twice the speed of sound. Large Goodyear tyres and brake discs help bring it to a stop, and the car is also kitted with a parachute.

In April, during testing at the Ministry of Defence's Thorney Island facility in Emsworth, Hampshire, the car reached a speed of 72mph and all the vehicle's systems worked perfectly.

Edwards Air Force Base has low altitude, meaning there is more oxygen for the car's burners.

Officials said the team needs seven miles of track to make the record attempt, which precluded it taking place in the UK.

In 1985, the Barber-Nicholls team reached a speed of 145mph in their vehicle, Steamin' Demon, but no attempt was made to have it officially recognised by the FIA.

However, the British Steam Car team said it acknowledges the speed as the record to exceed.

The FIA recognises a land speed record as the average speed of two passes made across the same measured distance in opposing directions within 60 minutes of each other.

The time of the two runs is then averaged to obtain the official recorded speed