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Image via Twitter: Bloodhound LSR @Bloodhound_LSR
A jet-powered car set to attempt to break the world land speed record next year has been unveiled in the Northern Cape this week – ready to undergo low speed testing.
The Pommie-built Bloodhound LSR (short for Land Speed Record) car is powered by a 54,000 horsepower Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet engine. It was displayed in the Hakskeen Pan dried-up desert lake close to the border of Namibia.
Bloodhound Land Speed Record attempt in the Northern Cape
#BloodhoundLSR = launched 🚗🚀
What do you think? Comment below! 👇🏾 #2019HST pic.twitter.com/wlSQEyaDIm
— Bloodhound LSR (@Bloodhound_LSR) October 21, 2019
Autocar.co.uk reports it’s the first time the car has been seen with its tyre-less machined solid aluminium wheels: the ones to be eventually used for the world record attempt.
This week and next week’s planned test runs will take place on a specially prepared 20km (12.4-mile) track in the Kalahari Desert.
More than 300 members of the nearby community of Mier worked by hand to remove more than 16,500 tonnes of stone in preparation of Bloodhound’s test runs. A total of 13 parallel tracks have been laid out, because the car’s unique aluminium wheels will penetrate the track’s hard surface, which will render that part of the desert unusable for a second run. The car cannot use tyres because the rotational supersonic speed would simply throw them off the rims.
Full view of the track lines that Andy Green will follow when we go testing later this week 😎🚗🚀
Could YOU stick to those lines whilst going 500+ mph? Let us know 👇🏽 #BloodhoundLSR #2019HST pic.twitter.com/PiSmiIAYBT
— Bloodhound LSR (@Bloodhound_LSR) October 22, 2019
In an interview with TheSouthAfrican in 2015 at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK, Bloodhound driver, former RAF jet pilot and current world land speed record holder Wing Commander Andy Green, said testing high-speed aerodynamics and stability in early low speed trial runs would be vital before the engine is run at full throttle and maximum speed. In 1997 Green became the only person ever to drive a car at supersonic speed on land when he took his Thrust SSC (short for Super Sonic Car) to 763.035mph.
The Bloodhound team wants the car to reach at least 800mph towards the end of next year. Initial test this week will be limited to 500mph. If the car reaches 800mph next year a decision will be taken to go for 1,000 mph.
It’s been a long journey for Bloodhound, both financially and physically. After a 200 mph test at Newquay Airport in October 2017 the project almost went into administration because of a lack of funding. Earlier this year the enterprise was rescued by an investment from British engineering millionaire Ian Warhurst. This made it possible for the car to travel in a semi-dismantled state from Luxembourg to Johannesburg by airfreight before making a final 920km journey on the back of a large truck.
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