[llamaorama]

I'm not an engineer but I'm having trouble conceptualizing how this thing wouldn't just blow up.

High speed trains that at most travel about 200 mph, or 300+ during tests, run over semi-flexible steel rails anchored to the ground or maglev guideways with an air cushion between the vehicle and the beam. In the event that hot weather causes a rail to slightly warp isn't necessarily catastrophic and in the worst case scenario the train will just ditch to the ground and scrape itself to a stop.

But a sled going "Ludicrous Speed" inside a small pipe, what if the pipe is slightly warped? Won't it catastrophically fail and smash up?