One year from now, the British Bloodhound team will attempt to set a new land speed record at Hakskeen Pan, in South Africa’s Northern Cape.
The current land speed record is 763 mph, set in 1997 by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green , who will also pilot the Bloodhound in 2017.
The first attempt at breaking the record is set at 800 mph, before gradually working towards 1 000 mph in 2018.
A number of Northern Cape communities, such as Groot Mier and Klein Mier, earlier this month celebrated 365 days to the record attempt by receiving recognition for their work in clearing the pan of 26 000 m3 of rock and stone.
International Automobile Federation (FIA) land speed records commission president Dennis Dean was on hand to inspect their work, calling the track world class.
A former US Navy captain, Dean said he was at a loss for words over the “amazing work” the communities had done to turn the pan into a world-class racetrack.
“I can see other land speed records being set here. The track is accessible, it is good quality. It could become the best venue in the world for land speed records.”
He said the Bonneville Salt Flats, in the US, currently the favoured destination for a number of land speed record attempts, was “deteriorating fast”.
Bloodhound chief engineer Mark Chapman said one of the biggest challenges in breaking the record would be how the Bloodhound, powered by a jet engine and rocket, would interact with the desert surface.
“The desert is as much part of the car as any part of the car.”
He said it was important to break the record by steadily increasing the speed, rather than gunning for the 800 mph mark at first go, in order to gather and interpret data on how, for example, the solid aluminium wheels interacted with the soil.
“The drag of the car is also unknown. We can’t put the car in a wind tunnel. We will now have to see if all our computational work is correct.”