When a British supercar broke the land speed record of 763 miles per hour in 1997, it inspired a team of engineers to further attempt to break that record. Today, engineers work on a supercar claimed to be able to travel up to 1000 miles per hour on land by harnessing both the power of a Jaguar supercharged V8 combustion engine and the thrust of a jet engine from a Typhoon fighter jet.
Dubbed Bloodhound, this supercar is no joke. The car is said to be faster than a bullet and packs a whopping 135,000 horsepower, which is much more than your average 190-800 horsepower car that you might pick up at the dealership, whether it be a commuter car or even a sports car. It’s clear that this is a new class of car being built solely with the intention to break speed records.
Bloodhound has been years in the making, with research spanning over eight years and engineering teams working ultra hard to combat physics, which essentially desire something moving this fast to actually lift up off of the ground. As a result, the car isn’t exactly light, and it travels on metal wheels rather than rubber tires.
"It's amazing to see it like this, away from the workshop and almost ready to go racing," said chief engineer Mark Chapman. "I can't wait to see people's reaction, to see the look on their faces."
The car is scheduled to move to the Hakskeen Pan on the northern cape of South Africa in 2016, where a team has cleared the rocks from a path with just hand tools and shovels to create a smooth 12-mile-long surface for the car to travel on. You heard that right – no asphalt – or as Doc from Back to the Future would say, “Where we’re going, we don’t need asphalt!”
First, to ensure that everything goes right, the Bloodhound will start off at a speed of 800 miles per hour. This alone will break the record set in 1997, but after everything looks good, the researchers want to push the car later in 2017 to 1000 miles per hour, which the supercar was designed for.
Just to put into perspective of just how fast that really is, the wheels will be turning about 170 times per second, which is about 10,200 RPM. To prevent any problems with rock or debris slinging, the team that cleared the 12-mile path for the car has worked extra hard to create a smooth surface that will be safe to travel on.
The engineers behind the project are ultra excited to see what this supercar can do. Of course, speeds this fast can be lethal should anything go wrong, so taking everything one step at a time to ensure the supercar's safety is the most important step.
Source: Bloodhound SSC