“We came to show the world Bloodhound is go,” says Bloodhound supersonic car (SCC) driver Andy Green.
The Bloodhound on Thursday proved to be top dog as it successfully concluded its first official run, stretching its legs at 200 mph (322 km/h) on the Newquay Airport runway, in Cornwall, in the UK.
The car spent 22 minutes on the runway, completing two runs, to the delight of the assembled crowd.
The vehicle travelled from zero to 200 mph in under 8 seconds, accelerating at 1.5 G.
“It was brilliant,” said Green. “The car is meant to be a supersonic car and we used it to do drag racing on a runway.”
The team assembled valuable information from the Newquay run, such as brake temperatures.
It was Green’s first opportunity to drive the car.
October is the month that British Royal Air Force fighter pilot Green celebrates the twentieth anniversary of being the first and only man to ever break the sound barrier in a car, setting the current world land-speed record at 763.035 mph (1 227.98 km/h).
The Newquay run was the start of the Bloodhound team’s campaign to be the first to break the 1 000 mph (1 609 km/h) limit in a car.
The Bloodhound – 13.4 m long, 7.5 t – will aim to break the record on Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape, in 2018 or 2019, should the team secure the necessary funding for an extended desert campaign.
There is no scope to increase speeds significantly in the UK as there is no runway long enough or tyres available to withstand the loads generated by Bloodhound SSC beyond 250 mph.