BLOODHOUND SSC is a jet and rocket powered car designed to go at 1,000 mph (just over 1,600 kph). It has a slender body of approximately 14m length with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. It weighs over 7 tonnes and the engines produce more than 135,000 horsepower - more than 6 times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together!
The Car is a mix of car and aircraft technology, with the front half being a carbon fibre monocoque like a racing car and the back half being a metallic framework and panels like an aircraft.
Runway testing of up to 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) is scheduled to take place early 2016. Bloodhound SSC will then be tested on the Hakskeen Pan in the Mier area of the Northern Cape, South Africa where a track 12 miles (19 km) long, 2 miles (3.2 km) wide has been cleared.
The car is an amazing feat of engineering. A prototype Eurojet EJ200 jet engine developed for the Eurofighter and bound for a museum, was donated to the project. This will take the car to 300 mph (480 km/h), after which a bespoke hybrid rocket designed by Nammo will boost the car up to 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h). A third engine, a 750 hp (560 kW) 2.4 Litre Cosworth CA2010 Formula 1 V8 petrol engine, is used as an auxiliary power unit and to drive the oxidiser pump for the rocket. The jet engine will provide nine tonnes of thrust and the rocket will add another 12. The supersonic car will have roughly the same power as 180 F1 cars.
The Bloodhound SSC project has a comprehensive website as below:-
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/project/car
They are on Twitter and regularly post updates. An example is the fascinating infographic below - 10 astounding facts about Bloodhound SSC.
Be sure to keep up to date and follow the Bloodhound SSC project.
http://www.twitter.com/BLOODHOUND_SSC
http://www.facebook.com/BLOODHOUNDSSC
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