How to burn rubber – and £30m! Supersonic car project scrapped
THE brakes have been put on a £55million British project to smash the world land speed record using a jet-propelled car capable of 1,000mph.
The supersonic Bloodhound, powered by a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter jet engine and three rockets, could now be sold for just £250,000 – the price of a Ferrari.
After spending around £30million on the project, the Bristol-based Bloodhound Programme failed to secure a £25million cash injection needed to complete ‘the most complicated car ever built’, and the firm went into administration in October.
The team was aiming to beat the existing record of 763mph in South Africa, where an 11-mile long track has been prepared on a salt pan in the Kalahari desert.
Driver Andy Green told the BBC the car was now available to buy – although he warned: ‘You’re going to need to find a few million to get it running to full speed.’ He added: ‘We have basically completed the main structure, the desert is ready, we just need the funding.’
Administrator Andrew Sheridan said his firm FRP Advisory had worked ‘tirelessly’ to rescue the project, but an investor could not be found.
The Bloodhound car, which has been in development since 2007, is capable of generating 135,000 horsepower, which is six times the power of the 20 cars on the Formula 1 starting grid. The bid was supported by companies including RollsRoyce and Rolex, while the Ministry of Defence lent prototype jet engines.
Bloodhound reached speeds of 200mph in tests at Newquay Airport in Cornwall last year. At 1,000mph, it would cover a mile in 3.6 seconds.
The project’s director Richard Noble and driver Mr Green set the current record on Thrust supersonic car in the Nevada desert in the US in 1997.