BLOODHOUND SSC aiming for  1,000 mph record

135,000 thrust horse power; equalivalent to 180 F1 cars

Zero to 1,000 mph in 55 seconds

1,000 to zero again in a further 65 seconds; covering 12 miles

That’s a mile (1.6km) in 3.6 seconds

Jet engine consumes 64,000 litres of air per second

Over 280 global companies involved in the Project

In 2016 the BLOODHOUND SSC will take its first steps to prove it is the world’s fastest and most advanced racing car, as it looks to beat the world land speed record of 763 mph, which is currently held by Thrust SSC.

High speed testing of the BLOODHOUND SSC will take place next year at South Africa’s Northern Cape desert. After returning home to the UK to analyse the data gathered, the team will then return to South Africa in 2017 with the aim of reaching a record-breaking 1,000 mph.

The BLOODHOUND SSC is the product of eight years of research, design and manufacturing, involving over 350 companies and universities.

It uses jet and rocket motors to produce c.135,000 thrust hp. This is more than nine times the power output of all the cars in Formula 1 combined, making BLOODHOUND SSC the world’s most powerful land vehicle.

BLOODHOUND SSC has a 2m high tail fin, required for stability at high speed, with a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine and supercharged Jaguar V8 engine used to pump oxidizer into the Nammo rocket.

The cockpit – a huge and complex monocoque (single piece shell) – is crafted from multiple layers of carbon fibre to produce what is probably the strongest safety-cell ever fitted to a racing car.

Inside there is a sophisticated digital dashboard, designed by the driver, as well as manual back-ups for the major controls. They are there because BLOODHOUND SSC has not been designed ‘simply’ to reach 1000mph; 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.

Castrol is providing a number of high tech lubricants including a specially blended engine oil, strengthened with their unique Titanium Fluid Strength Technology. Custom-made Rolex instruments provide another layer of redundancy: should the digital read-outs fail, the driver (Andy) will use these clocks to time the release of the car’s parachutes and when to apply the wheel brakes. If he brings them in too soon, at speeds above 250mph, for example, they could burst into flames.

The car has been created by a team of Formula 1 and aerospace experts with assistance from the Army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and technicians from the RAFs 71 Squadron who built the tail fin.

BLOODHOUND SSC is not just a racing car – it is also a supersonic TV studio. There are 12 cameras built into the vehicle, including two inside the cockpit that will be live for the first time during the public show. When the team is racing for its first record next year in South Africa, audiences will enjoy the same view as Andy and see the same information. They will know how the car is balanced, the temperatures in the engines and the speed through the Measured Mile.

Sharing the experience in this way, and all the data coming from the car, is a core principle of The BLOODHOUND Project and central to its mission of inspiring a future generation about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The team is delivering results before the car even turns a wheel, with over 100,000 children in the UK alone doing BLOODHOUND lessons or attending events each year. Universities involved with The Project have seen record numbers apply to study engineering while the BLOODHOUND Model Rocket Car Challenge, where students build and race 12” long rocket powered cars, is taking off around the world.

Project Director Richard Noble said, “Public interest in The Project is incredible. With the car now built and the track in South Africa prepared our focus is on racing in 2016. That part of the adventure starts with runway tests at Newquay Aerohub next Easter.”

Did you know…

• The world land speed record of 763 mph is held by Thrust SSC, a UK team led by BLOODHOUND’s Project Director Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green.

• The BLOODHOUND team scoured the globe to find the perfect desert to run the car on, it needed to be at least 12 miles (19km) long, two miles (3km) wide and perfectly flat. The Hakskeen Pan, was selected.

• At full speed BLOODHOUND SSC will cover a mile (1.6km) in 3.6 seconds, that’s 4.5 football pitches laid end to end per second.

• BLOODHOUND has three power plants, a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet from an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, a cluster of Nammo hybrid rockets and a 550 bhp Supercharged Jaguar V8 engine that drives the rocket oxidizer pump. Between them they generate 135,000 thrust hp, equivalent to 180 F1 cars.

• BLOODHOUND SSC will undergo UK runway testing up to 200 mph (321 km/h) at the Aerohub, Newquay. The Team will then deploy to South Africa to begin high speed testing with the target of reaching 800 mph (1,287 km/h). The Team will return to the UK to review the data and return to South Africa in 2017 with the aim of reaching 1,000 mph (1,609 km/h)

• Over 280 global companies, 200 of them SMEs, are involved in the Project, which has become a showcase for science and engineering capability.

• Over 6,000 UK primary and secondary schools have signed up to use the free BLOODHOUND Education resources in their classrooms.

• The educational outreach programme also runs in South Africa with more than 1,000 schools already participating and more than 100 BLOODHOUND Ambassadors signed up to help use the project to inspire young people about studying maths and science. The programme reaches out to schools across the country, but particularly in the Northern Cape Province, home to the track where the BLOODHOUND SSC will run.

Engineering facts

- BLOODHOUND’s wheels spin at 10,200rpm, 170 times per second. They generate 50,000 radial G. A 1kg bag of sugar would weigh 50 tonnes, or equal to a fully laden articulated lorry.

- BLOODHOUND will run on the Hakskeen Pan, South Africa. This is an alkali plays, essentially a dried up lake bed.

- A team of 317 locals were employed to clear the desert, they shifted 15,800 tonnes of stones by hand, from a 22 million square metres, the equivalent of a two-lane road from Bristol to Moscow.

- For 2016 / 1,000mph runs the BLOODHOUND will be fitted with three hybrid rockets, which combined with the EJ200 from a Eurofighter Typhoon will produce 135,000 thrust horse power – equal to 180 F1 cars.

- BLOODHOUND will decelerate from 1,000mph at 3G, this is like traveling from 60mph to stand still in one second, most people call this a crash. Andy has to endure this for several seconds.

- BLOODHOUND will go from zero to 1,000mph in 55 seconds and back to zero again in a further 65 seconds, covering 12 miles.

- The EJ200 jet engine consumes 64,000 litres of air per second, it would suck all the air from an average sized house in 3 seconds.

Education facts

- 6,000 UK primary and secondary schools signed up and using free BLOODHOUND Education Resources in the classroom.

- 150 STEM school events per year reach over 100,000 students.

- 800 specially trained BLOODHOUND ambassadors help the team support teachers across the country.

- Aim to deliver a BLOODHOUND lesson to 2.5million school children by 2018.

- 65% of students engaged by BLOODHOUND would now consider engineering / science vocation (Sample size 1804).

- Model rocket car challenge, supported by Guinness World Records, speed has risen from 88mph to 210mph and now 553mph held by Joseph Whitaker Young Engineers.

Discover more about The BLOODHOUND Project here.