AP News
Bloodhound Aims to Be World's Fastest Car in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — An earthbound jet known as the Bloodhound became one of the world’s 10 fastest cars this week, on target for its goal to set a new land speed record.
Bloodhound’s next goal is to reach 550 mph, possibly in the coming week. Powered by a Rolls-Royce EJ200, the same jet engine used in the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet, the car hurtles so fast across the salt pan track that a twin parachute is needed to bring it to a halt.
With the aerodynamic lines of a rocket, Bloodhound was designed and built in Britain by Grafton LSR. It was taken apart and air-freighted to South Africa, where it was reassembled. Its crew is working flat out in South Africa to refine all aspects of the car.
“The whole team has been on a buzz since arriving here a few weeks ago to knock out the teething problems,” said Green, 57, a jet fighter pilot for Britain’s Royal Air Force who says his hobby is driving straight-line racing cars. “We’re working together to get the car up to top speed.”
In this handout photo provided by Bloodhound, the vehicle is set for a trail run along the Hakskeenpan track in South Africa during trials to set a land speed record Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. Hitting 501 miles per hour on the South Africa’s northern desert, the Bloodhound became one of the world’s 10 fastest cars this week, on target for its goal to set a new land speed record. A jet that stays on earth, Bloodhound’s next goal is to reach 550 miles per hour, possibly in the coming week. (Charlie Sperring/Bloodhound via AP)
Bloodhound’s Jet Engine Will Be Boosted by a Rocket Engine
Over the next few weeks, Green and the Grafton team hope to get Bloodhound up to 600 mph. Over the next year, they aim to break the world land speed record of 763 mph. Green set that record in a different car in 1997.
Ultimately, Bloodhound’s jet engine will be boosted by a rocket engine with the goal of safely reaching 1,000 mph, faster than the 767 mph speed of sound.
Green reckons that South Africa’s Hakskeen Pan is the best place to reach that speed. In northwestern South Africa, near the border with Namibia, the dry lake has an alkali playa, or baked mud, surface and has been painstakingly cleared of all rocks.
The government of the Northern Cape province hired more than 300 people of the local Mier community in a yearslong project to clear 16,500 tons of stone from the 12-mile-long track, said Bloodhound spokesman Jules Tipler.
“They’ve created the best straight-line high-speed testing track in the world,” Green said, adding that it surpasses the Black Rock Desert track in Nevada in the United States.
“This track is harder, it has more consistency and the weather is much better. We have six months with clear weather to test here.”
