The Bloodhound land-speed record (LSR) car has arrived safely at Hakskeenpan, in the Northern Cape, where it will stay for the next month as the team prepares for the car’s first high-speed test runs.

The test runs are part of an effort to set a new world land-speed record. The current land-speed record is 1 227.9 km/h, and is held by the Thrust supersonic car.

This record was set in 1997 by a UK team led by Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green, who is also the Bloodhound LSR driver.

With the car now in South Africa, the team’s first task was to re-assemble the vehicle, which travelled in a semi‑dismantled state from Luxembourg to Johannesburg by airfreight, before making the final 920 km journey to the desert on the back of an articulated truck.

The car was transported on pneumatic tyres, which allowed it to be manoeuvred on tarmac. They also increased the effective damping of the car, further protecting the car and systems from any shocks during its travels.

Unable to stand up to the extreme stresses of high speed driving, these tyres will be swapped for precision machined solid aluminium wheels ahead of launch.

Once these narrower wheels, made specifically for desert testing, are fitted, engineers will be able to re-attach sections of carbon fibre composite bodywork to the front of the car, along with the nose section, which is vital for effective aerodynamics.

The tail fin will also be fitted, completing the chassis and making the car ready for action.

The 25-strong team who flew out with the car joined an advance party who have been working to set up the 50 m x 50 m desert technical camp on the edge of the Hakskeenpan.

As well as the Bloodhound car itself, it houses a temporary workshop, and also the precision tools needed to fine tune performance and to maintain the car, including a lathe, milling machine and welding equipment.

The high-speed tests will see the Bloodhound LSR car blasting along the specially prepared Hakskeenpan desert racetrack for the very first time.

The car will be unveiled on October 21, before it begins the high speed test programme, during which it will build speed gradually in 80 km/h increments, over a period of a month.

The culmination of the four to five weeks of testing will see the car hit speeds of more than 800 km/h.

“After years of work to prepare the car, and following almost a decade of preparation of our desert track by the Northern Cape government, we’re delighted to finally be here,” says Bloodhound pilot Andy Green.

“The next few weeks will allow us to test the car and train the team, ready for our assault on the outright world land-speed record next year.”

Hakskeenpan
The 16 km desert racetrack has been prepared by 317 members of the local Mier community, in a project funded by the Northern Cape government.

They have moved 16 500 t of rock, by hand, from 22-million square metres of dry lakebed.

“The section of the track we’ll use is 16 km by 250 m, with large safety areas on both sides,” explains Bloodhound CEO Ian Warhurst.

“This allows us to lay out up to 25 individual tracks side by side, if we need them.

“This is important as we can’t run over the same piece of ground twice, because the car will break up the baked mud surface as it passes.

“We need multiple tracks so we can build speed slowly and safely – comparing real-world results with theoretical data – and Hakskeenpan is the perfect place to do this.

“The surface is hard, too, which means we’ve been able to design slightly narrower wheels that reduce aerodynamic drag.

“The desert surface also has a slight degree of ‘give’, which will work with the suspension to give a smoother ride, reducing vibration inside the car,” explains Warhurst.

The Bloodhound
The Bloodhound LSR car is a combination of fast jet, F1 car and spaceship. The project is followed in over 220 countries and territories.

At full design speed (1 690 km/h) the Bloodhound LSR car could cover a mile in 3.6 seconds – that’s 4.5 football pitches laid end to end, per second, or 150 m in the blink of an eye.

The project to set a new land-speed record is split into two phases.

Phase one’s target is to break the world land-speed record. This is necessary in order to understand how the car behaves as it enters the transonic stage initially and then supersonic speed levels.

Upon the successful completion of phase one, the team will review the data and technical challenges before embarking on phase two, and the real challenge of safely reaching the target speed of 1 600 km/h.

The high-speed testing will be conducted using the car’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, normally found in a Eurofighter Typhoon.

These engines produce a peak thrust of 20 000 lbs (90 kilonewtons), equivalent to 54 000 thrust hp, or the combined output of 360 family cars.