THE CAR BUILT TO GO FASTER THAN A BULLET By Neville Barlow Even before I was old enough to go to school, I was aware of World Land Speed record breaking cars. In 1947 John Cobb in his Railton Mobil Special was the first man to exceed 400 miles per hour. He was one of the last few men who used an internal combus,on engine driving the rear wheels. Land Speed records have now become the province of Jet and Rocket cars. The current record stands at 7.3.030 mph, achieved in 1 7 by 2nd1 3reen driving Thrust SSC. 4loodhound SSC 5Super Sonic Car6 hopes to achieve 1,000 mph. The following ar,cle I wrote for the September 2010 edi,on of our maga7ine. The one and onl1 video ever put on the web site can be seen in ‘older’ technical items entled 4loodhound SSC. Jaguar :K has recentl1 sent out a Media informa,on sheet and Railton Mobil Special released photos of an F T1pe Coupe and 2 XJR’s. These vehicles have been custom made by Jaguar Landrover9s Special Vehicle Opera,ons Division and are wrapped in a bespoke liver1 incorpora,ng 4loodhound SSC colours. The 3 vehicles have been prepared as Rapid Response Vehicles with 're'ghng, safet1 and medical equipment on board. The1 have been built to support a consor,um of 4ri,sh engineers who are building a rocket powered vehicle to aBack the World Land Speed Record. It is hoped that this vehicle will e)ceed 1000 mph. On a sled like chassis will be a Rolls Ro1ce EJ100 Cet engine usuall1 found in the Euro'ghter T1phoon 'ghter plane. This will take the car to 300 mph aDer which a bespoke hybrid rocket designed by Eammo will boost the car to 1000 mph 51.0 kph). 2 third engine, a Jaguar 0 litre V8, as used in the F T1pe Jaguar, will power the huge fuel pump needed to keep the rocket motor burning. The task of driving 4loodhound will fall to 2nd1 3reen, a R2F pilot, who drove the Thrust SSC rocket car in 1 7 to 7.3 mph 51228 kph), thereby breaking the sound barrier. 4loodhound should accelerate from 0 F 1000 mph in 42 seconds. 28 2ndy will e)perience a force of 2.0 g’s 52 G ,mes his body weight6 and blood will Hood to his head. To slow down he will deplo1 airbrakes at 800mph and disc brakes at 200 mph. 2s he decelerates, forces of 8g9s will drain blood to his feet with a rush, enough to risk a black out. Condi,oning will involve much prac,ce in stunt aircraD. 2t such high speeds normal t1res would melt and the1 have been replaced by aluminium. 4loodhound will have four 3.I wheels that will rotate at up to 10,200 rpm and will be forged from solid aluminium to resist the 00,000g centrifugal force. 4loodhound is 12. metres long, 2.0 metres wide and 3.0 metres high. Its kerb weight is .,422 kgs. Runwa1 tes,ng will begin shortl1 at Eewqua1 airport in Cornwall where a 3000-metre runwa1 will allow shake down runs of up to 2000mpt 5320 kph). 4loodhound will then be taken to the Hakskeen Pan in the Meir area of the Eorthern Cape of South 2frica where a natural salt Hat, said to be long enough at 12 miles 51 kms6 and 2 miles 53.2ks6 wide, has been cleared. Here it will aBempt to break 800 mph late in 2010 and return in 201. to tr1 to e)ceed 1000 mph. If 1ou are impressed by this science proCect 1ou can have 1our name put on the 'n of the car for L10 and the1 will email 1ou a cer,'cate to prove 1our vested interest in 4loodhound. Jaguar, last 1ear ran an XJR over the Hakskeen Pan to test its suitabilit1 at speeds of up to 200 kph. Recent tes,ng involved running an 2ll-Wheel Drive Jaguar F T1pe R V8 head on at 300 kph towards a speeding Cet plane H1ing at onl1 00 feet above the dr1 lake bed. It was to test to see how 4loodhounds radio equipment would perform at high speed. The car and plane carried radio equipment rushing towards each other at a combined speed of 700 mph. Ever1 step of the wa1 is being shared on all media outlets as the builders wish to share this engineering adventure with a global audience. The1 sa1 the1 have a love of science, technolog1, engineering and mathema,cs and wish to show how ama7ing and fun the1 can be. Eow in 201 . Eews of this venture became ver1 sparse into 201. and then nothing. In earl1 2018 it was announced that the 4loodhound SSC eMort had run into 'nancial diNcul,es and was now abandoned. The car was now either to be dismantled or displa1ed in some museum. What a real shame I thought. 2 However, in Jul1 201 it was announced that the 4ri,sh Land Speed record proCect had been rescued from receivership earl1 this 1ear by engineering millionaire Ian Warhurst. 2 series of high-speed tests were to begin in October 201 as a dress rehearsal for the real thing in late 2020. The cars new liver1-a red 'n with a white bod1 is to allow other investors to Coin the proCect. Warhurst said he has been overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm the public has shown for the proCect and it would have been a tragedy to see it go to waste. The car now labelled 4loodhound LSR 5Land Speed Record) arrived safel1 at the Hakskeen Pan on 18 th October 201 and began a 0-week programme of test runs. These tests were completed on Eovember 1. th 201 . The1 involved a ver1 carefull1 programed series of 17 test runs, increasing the speeds from 100mph to the 'nal run of .28mph or 1000kph. The car is liBered with 1 2 sensors, both inside and out and on their last test run paint work 3 metres back from the front wheels was stripped awa1 by the sheer speed of the vehicle. Other test included aliening the braking parachutes, understanding the eMect of side winds of onl1 10kph made steering almost Andy Green impossible. 2ir brakes were checked and adCusted and the engineers were kept bus1 for many hours making sure as much as possible the car was safe at all the speeds that were aBempted. 2ndy 3reen sa1s the stabilit1 and confidence I have in the car is testament to 1ears of world class engineering. The car is now back in England. The intenon is to now replace the Cet engine with the proposed Eammo rocket engine which should propel the vehicle to its intended 1000mph. Ian Warhurst, who saved the proCect, said OhiPng the milestone speed of over .00mph was a high point. We now move on to idenf1ing new sponsors and investment needed to bring 4loodhound back to the Hakskeen Pan ne)t 1earI. Can 1ou believe in a video on 1ou tube 1ou can see a mock-up of this futuris,c car catching and passing a bullet out of riHeQ 2t 1000mph it takes 3.. seconds to cover a mile and 1 second to cover 4 football 'elds placed end to end. I look forward to seeing this ama7ing machine in 8Hight’ ne)t 1ear. Neville 30 .