All systems are still go for the World Land Speed Record attempt that should see a car called Bloodhound exceed 1600km/h on South Africa’s Hakskeen Pan late in 2013 or early 2014.
Bloodhound Super Sonic Car’s project director, Richard Noble - a former land speed record holder himself - is in the country promoting the event that could put South Africa on the map as the venue that first hosts a car travelling at 1000 miles per hour (1612km/h). Up until now the first choice for such attempts has been the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah or the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
Noble says the Northern Cape’s Hakskeen Pan was chosen as the ideal spot because of a relatively long four-month weather period to stage the attempt (the window in the US is only one month), and for its ultimate flatness. Measurements have revealed that, over two kilometres the pan changes by a gradient of only 61mm. The event will be supported by the Northern Cape government which has already helped by re-routing a road that splits the Pan in the middle, and arranging volunteers who have so far removed 6000 tonnes of stones from the surface.
JET AND ROCKET POWER
The Bloodhound car will be powered by both a jet engine from a Eurofighter jet, and a hybrid rocket that uses a Cosworth V8 Formula One engine for a fuel pump that will shift 43 litres of liquid peroxide per second.
Interestingly, if all goes well, the 7.8-tonne car will go about 320km/h faster than the Eurofighter jet it borrows one of its engines from.
At 1600km/h the wheels - milled from solid aluminium - will rotate at 10 000rpm.
Bloodhound SSC will be driven by British fighter pilot Andy Green, who was also the first man to go supersonic on land in 1997 when the same team set the current land speed record at 1228km/h with its Thrust SSC car.
R3 MILLION A MONTH
Noble is reluctant to disclose the full cost of the project, but says that total expenditure so far has been around R63-million. The team of 44 people working around the clock in the UK need about R120 000 per day, or more than R3 million per month, to stay in business, and have been helped by numerous sponsors including a multi-million dollar deal with Rolex. Noble also says that the goal to have the car on its wheels by December 2012 would cost R50-million more.
If everything stays on schedule, the Bloodhound car should arrive in South Africa late in 2013 for some operational tests, and could go for the 1600km/h record early in 2014. - Star Motoring