Just watching a re-run of the Goodwood FoS highlights and saw Andy Green talking about the Bloodhound SSC.

Been following the project for a while now and god do I want them to succeed.

1000 mph+ in a car?! Bonkers

Plus it looks ace…

Andy Green = Madder than a sackful of angry badgers.

Awesome, though. Utterly awesome.

Cheers,

Richard Noble

I think there’s a tie-in possibility for the world’s most powerful sex toy in that colour scheme. Probably less pointy though 🙂

Been following for a couple of years now, an awesome engineering adventure, truly inspirational. I think they will definitely make it to 1k, probably first as well. I’m hoping to go out to South Africa to watch, chance of a life time IMO

gofasterstripes – the name might need some work, though… 😕

Should have stuck with “Thrust” 🙂

Is there anyone else out there building a 1k vehicle to challenge for the record then?

http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/project/adventure/challengers

Doesn’t it use a Mugen-Honda F1 engine as a fuel pump?

Love the one that’s basically just a starfighter with the wings cut off and some pram wheels attached.

I’ve posted it before but it’s worth a watch – Andy Green talking about driving at silly speeds.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r14QWYbB-Y[/video]

There is something about the american’s starfighter that makes me worry about the outcome, I wish them the best and it’s a fabulous ‘guys in a shed’ project but cripes 800mph looks a big ask and I’m not sure I’d climb in it!
Rosco’s Aussie Invader (sex toy ahoy!) Looks a proper contender though, I just hope it get’s to the race in time because the Bloodhound looks like it’s going to woof past the 1000mph AND arrive safely at the other end.
Andy Green is the coolest guy though. His ‘everything is going to be wonderful’ quip as he just passed through the sound barrier is just the most perfect and British response to being on the limit! 😀

johnellison

Read somewhere it has 3 engines; a jet engine from a Typhoon military aircraft, a hybrid rocket motor and a F1 V8 Cosworth engine, bonkers truly bonkers.

I love this project, done for no other reason than they want to be the first, the best, and show British engineering off. It’s the sort of thing so many people say “you could build a hospital with that money”, and they just don’t get the point. Sometimes it’s good to be the best!

I would love to have been at the meeting when this conversation happened (as I imagine it):

“Righty-ho guys, we need to make a faster one now. It’d be spiffing to make it do 1000mph, eh?”
“Yes, Andy, do you mind driving again?”
“I would be delighted!”
“So, the jet engines, do they do a more powerful one than we used last time?”
“No”
“Oh. Whats more powerful then?”
“A rocket.”
“Aren’t they a bit dangerous?”
“Yeah, a bit.”
“Be nice to put one on a car though, eh chaps?”
:general murmur of agreement through thoughtfully trimmed moustaches:
“Hang on though, we need to make sure it works. Don’t want to look bad for Queen and Country, do we? How about a rocket AND and jet engine? And a Formula 1 engine in there too?”
:general murmur of agreement through thoughtfully trimmed moustaches:
“Ok, thats decided, all three. Get to work chaps!”

I saw a quote from Andy Green talking about an interview he did with an F1 driver (can’t remember which one) and he was basically like ‘Yeah, and I use one of your engines – as the fuel pump…’

Looking at that poster I think they should launch it vertical for an encore!

Love all the physics analogies – and then they throw in “4 lactating cows”!! Brilliant!!

Is there a separate record for land speed using driven wheels?

Always seemed a bit of a cheat to me; ostensibly you build a rocket or a jet plane, pull the wings off and stick wheels on it, hey presto air land speed record. I’d be curious as to what the actual driven-wheels record was.

I’d be curious as to what the actual driven-wheels record was.

Just under 460mph – by this car

Not sure about that poster. No mention of size relationships to double decker buses, blue whales or olympic swimming pools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel-driven_land_speed_record

The LSR used to be wheel driven only – Bluebird had it. The problem with that approach is the gearbox side of things becomes incredibly expensive! It’s much harder to get a ‘car’ to the same speed as an aircraft as the air is much more viscous at low altitude, the ground blocks the downward escape of the air and you have to stay stuck to the ground and within a narrow-ish track.

ostensibly you build a rocket or a jet plane, pull the wings off and stick wheels on it

Best oversimplification of the day. 😀

Well, obviously you’d need to put the wings back on upside down to keep it on the floor, duh.

No need if it’s on a treadmill. Obviously.

Yes i’m following the project. I haven’t read the book on it yet though.

I’ve posted this before, but its fantastic:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Ms71VPVQY[/video]

Bloodhound is brilliant. Its just absolutely bonkers – in the finest tradition.

To be fair though it was Thrust SSC that was probably the hardest. Designing a “car” to overcome transonic aerodynamics is quite a feat.

With that solved going faster is largely a materials science challenge, things like the wheels have just never been tried before

It includes design from the mandatory British eccentric, in this case slightly younger than normal

An interesting note is the exclusive rocket was designed by one of the world’s leading rocket scientists (yes, it’s a real job, not just an expression) who’s only 29 years old. Daniel “Rocket Dan” Jubb has been building rockets since the tender age of five, starting with McDonald straws, a light bulb and household ingredients. At eleven, he had co-founded the Falcon Project to design and develop rockets for commercial and military application. By the time he was fourteen, he was receiving corporate financing and was flying test rockets. An all-round classy genius, he’s also earned recognition from The Chap,( a men’s magazine dedicated to the British traditions of tweed, pipe smoking, finely-pressed trousers, etc.) for his prominent moustache (pictured here).

separate record for land speed using driven wheels

It took the Americans nearly 50 years to go faster than this

Daniel “Rocket Dan” Jubb

*Applauds!*

As a child, I met Noble, and he put me in to the seat of this thing;

Still remember the smell of it! (Almost as good as sitting in a Group B quattro…!)

TooTall – Member
ostensibly you build a rocket or a jet plane, pull the wings off and stick wheels on it
Best oversimplification of the day.

Yeah?

Blue Flame Natural Gas Rocket Car

They reckon Blue Flame, with some mods, could still be a contender; it was designed to go transonic.
Not so sure, but who knows.

Thrust Book. Well worth reading. They discovered in the early stages of developing thrust ssc, that thrust2 was 8mph off going vertical!

They reckon Blue Flame, with some mods, could still be a contender; it was designed to go transonic.
Not so sure, but who knows.

I’ve spoken quite a bit with the Bloodhound SSC team over the last couple of years. Taking a car beyond current records has been a real step into the unknown. The CFD calculations alone have been a challenge bigger than most previous projects were in total. Things start to do really unexpected things at those speeds.

Things start to do really unexpected things at those speeds.

No shit Sherlock! 😆
Shock waves from the front of the car interacting with a hard surface a couple of meters away, along with thicker air at ground level, crunching those numbers must be a nightmare to model.

It’s things like this where you can be proud of British Engineering, throw in Hope and a few others and it starts to balance out things like Rover…

crunching those numbers must be a nightmare to model.

This Chap’s your man

I think Andy Green must be a nutter, to have used full lock in Thrust at 700 odd mph just to stay in a straight line and then do it all again but at 1000mph takes minerals the likes of which I doubt i possess.

Manufacturing techniques and modelling are much more accurate now but even so – i’m not sure I could do it again!

Best of luck to them all – if the runs are being streamed live then i’ll be watching.