BLOODHOUND SSC
Absolutely ideal as an urban runaround
Hello, my name is Mark Chapman and I’m the chief engineer on Bloodhound. Last month, you may remember that we let Ollie and Charlie come down to Bristol and help out with the build of the car for a day. In all seriousness, everyone here commented how enthusiastic they’d been about getting stuck in. We were impressed. So now they’ve asked me to write a regular monthly update on what’s going on with the project – if you want even more regular updates, please have a look at www.bloodhoundssc.com/bloodhound-news.
Anyway, where are we now? Well, as I write this at the end of January, we have 26 weeks left to complete the car. That may sound like a lot, and it is, as it takes us up to the end of July, but don’t forget that the fnal car is also the prototype and so there are many unforeseeable hurdles that could trip us up.
The major thing we’re working on at the moment is a dirty big rotisserie. Basically, we’re going to turn the carbon monocoque cockpit upside down so we can bolt two large protective metal plates to the underside. The original spec allowed for steel panels to be used, but the opportunity came up to have titanium instead – it was a good deal. It’s half the weight of steel, and although weightsaving isn’t the main motivator on a car that weighs nearly eight tonnes, it will help a bit. What’s far more important to make sure is that it doesn’t afect our centre of gravity.
It’s been really good to get Jaguar on board, as the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 being used as a fuel pump will need no maintenance compared with the Cosworth F1 engine we’d originally planned on using. That’s just as well, as it’s too big to ft through the maintenance hatch we’d designed on the underside. We’re now building our own unique gearbox connected to a bespoke bell housing. It’s quite simple – we’re basically going to have a 550bhp chain-drive V8!
The V8 will rev to about 6,500rpm, and we’re looking for the HTP (high-test peroxide) impeller to be spinning at 10,800rpm, forcing 800 litres of fuel into the rocket in 17 seconds. That basically means we need a 1.66:1 ratio on the chain drive, and in actual fact we won’t need to pump anywhere near that amount in year one. About 200–300 litres should be sufcient to take us beyond the existing 763mph land speed record.
I don’t envy Conor La Grue’s job in all of this – he’s in charge of managing the supply chain. For the pump alone, he is having to deal with separate companies making the bearings, shaft, casings, impeller and seals. That’s a massive job. There’s just so much to think about right now. Doubt that will change soon.