It seems that everything about the Bloodhound supersonic car is fast.
The vehicle was only revealed to the public two weeks ago and now the team behind it, Bloodhound SSC has announced a date for its attempt to break the world’s land-speed record – 16th October 2016.
A lot still needs to be done before the team make their way to Hakskeenpan in South African, where several attempts (some of them successful) on the world’s land-speed record have been made.
The Bloodhound’s first 321km/h test runs at the Aerohub, Newquay airport in the UK will happen around Easter next year, after which the team will have SA in its sights for the full 1 610km/h attempt.
The October date also has some sentimental value for the team, as it coincides with the 19th anniversary of Thrust SSC’s record-breaking run. Thrust SSC is the current world land speed record holder, which reached a speed of 763mph – 1 228km/h – back in 1997.
The car is powered by a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine and supercharged Jaguar V8 engine used to pump oxidiser into the Nammo rocket. Those same engines produce around 135 000 horsepower of thrust, which will be enough to propel the car to its dizzying speeds.
“[The Bloodhound has not been designed ‘simply’ to reach 1 000mph; it must do so safely. That is why the car has three separate braking systems, seven fire extinguishers and 500 sensors, twice as many as a Formula One car, so engineers will know exactly how it is performing during each high speed run,” the team explained.
[Image – Bloodhound SSC Website]
