Bloodhound SSC: On The Road To A Land Speed Record

The current land speed record is held by the Thrust SSC, a vehicle which managed to hit 1,229 km/h in 1997.

Since then, nobody has really tried to beat the record as the technology wasn’t advanced enough to justify building a car that would probably go only a few kilometers faster… until now.

• Also: The Bloodhound SSC, Or ‘’How Do You Stop From 1609 Km/h?’’
• Also: Jaguar F-Type Gains All-Wheel Drive

Enter the Bloodhound SSC. It has been built for one purpose using today’s latest technologies: to hit 1000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h).

To propel the Bloodhound SSC, the team of engineers behind the project chose a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine out of a Eurofighter Typhoon (which has been lent to them, because buying one of these military units isn’t exactly cheap… or legal). To make sure the turbine can get enough fuel, the team had to find a pump that could feed up to 40 litres per second. This is when Jaguar stepped in, offering a 5-litre supercharged V8 out of an F-Type R. Overall, the Bloodhound SSC has 133,151 horsepower!

The pilot in charge of steering this thing into the history books is Andy Green; the man is used to going fast, since he was the one who set the previous record in the Thrust SSC. If all goes well, he should get to 1,609 km/h in around 55 seconds, while the whole run –including deceleration– should take around 2 minutes.

Next Easter, the engineers will take Bloodhound SSC for its first test, a nice little run up to 322 km/h. They will then use the data collected to fine-tune the vehicle before attempting to beat the record in the South African desert (one of the only places smooth and with a long enough straight) in August 2016.