Bloodhound’s back
Land speed record project has been rebooted with backing from a Yorkshire entrepreneur
And it’s being let off the leash
It’s my ambition to let Bloodhound off the leash and see just how fast it can go
The Bloodhound 1000mph land speed record project has been relaunched with a new base and livery – and the project’s new owner has vowed to let it “off the leash” and start high-speed testing as soon as possible.
The project appeared to strike terminal trouble late last year, after entering administration, until Yorkshire entrepreneur Ian Warhurst rescued it. Bloodhound has been rebranded, refinanced, repainted and moved to new headquarters in Gloucester.
Warhurst told Autocar that when he made contact, the administrators were “on the point of cutting the car up and sending it away for scrap”.
He added: “They put it off so I could come and see the car. I knew I couldn’t leave without doing some kind of deal.”
The core team that built the car over the past decade is already at work reinstating previously laid plans to set a new land speed record at Hakskeenpan in South Africa and then press on to beat the 1000mph barrier.
Rebranded as Bloodhound LSR (for ‘land speed record’), the machine is being prepared for high-speed tests in South Africa, following runs at up to 200mph at Newquay Airport last year. The project will be based in new premises in the SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
The car’s new livery, with its white body, is intended to encourage new investors in the project, with title and livery sponsorships being offered.
Warhurst has established a new company, Grafton LSR Ltd, to run the project. Warhurst is joined in the new company by familiar faces such as driver Andy Green and chief engineer Mark Chapman, along with many others from the original team “to provide continuity”. The team also now includes commercial director and exformula 1 money man Ewen Honeyman, whose job will be to find new backers.
Warhurst was eight days into his retirement when he heard by text from his son last December of Bloodhound’s demise. For the time being, he has pledged to provide “the cash flow to keep the project on track” until extra backers are found. Warhurst recently sold Melett, a turbocharger parts and equipment supplier of which he was the owner and managing director.
“I have been overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm the public has shown for the project,” said Warhurst. “Over the past decade, an incredible amount of hard graft has been invested in this project. It would be a tragedy to see it go to waste. It’s my ambition to let Bloodhound off the leash and see just how fast it can go.”
The former boss of the Bloodhound project, Richard Noble, will not participate on Bloodhound’s engineering side but will continue to work
on its educational aspects. He said: “It was a hard fight to create the Bloodhound car, the largest STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] programme in the UK, the public engagement
programme and the 1000-manyear desert preparation. Our weakness was always finance but now, with Ian Warhurst, the team has the support it needs to drive forward.”