The Bloodhound supersonic car will participate in a high-speed testing programme at Hakskeenpan, in the Northern Cape, between mid-October and mid-November this year.

The car is expected to reach speeds in excess of 800 km/h, as part of the Bloodhound team’s larger objective of beating the current land speed record (LSR) of 1 228 km/h.

The team’s ultimate objective is to reach 1 609.34 km/h.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, the Bloodhound LSR team, including its relatively new owner Grafton LSR CEO Ian Warhurst, outlined the test programme, which would comprise 12 runs over a two-week period, with a week or so set aside for site preparation and abolition, as well as some leeway to repeat test runs as needed.

The tests will be used to compile data ahead of the the LSR push, including using the various sensors to collate data for models that will attempt to predict how the car will handle at 1 609.34 km/h, initial brake tests, the effects parachute deployment will have on the car, and others.

The car, which is 13.5 m long and weighs 5.5 t, is powered by a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine and will eventually include a Nammo rocket. It will be driven by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green, who was part of the team that set the current LSR. Green has also been involved with the Bloodhound project since its inception.

The front of the car is made from carbon fibre, while the rear is a little more durable and made from aerospace-grade aluminium and other composites to support the engine, and eventually the rocket. It also has metal wheels designed to rotate 170 times a second.

Green explained that one of the key focuses of tests would be to determine how the high-speed solid metal wheels would behave on a desert track. He said that, as Hakskeenpan was a firm, smooth dry mud surface, the expectation was that the wheels would start to "plane" on the surface, but that it would offer some grip for the metal wheels, which a salt flat – such as Bonneville – would not.

He explained that with the wheels being so inflexible, the “give” would come from the surface, thereby providing a similar wheel surface to that of formula one cars.

He also noted that the Nammo rocket would not be included in the upcoming round of testing and that it would take around nine months to fit the rocket to the vehicle, once the test data had been analysed and integrated into the overall design.

The Bloodhound project went into administration in October last year, owing to a lack of financing, despite the fact that the car was mostly completed, and had already completed inaugural slow-speed (320 km/h) runs at the Newquay airport, in Cornwall, in the UK, in October 2017.

Warhurst bought the Bloodhound programme for an undisclosed amount in December and has, according to Green, been instrumental in the team progressing to a point where it is ready for high-speed testing.

Warhurst explained that the car would be shipped to South Africa at the beginning of October. “Moving a military jet engine to another country requires military approval,” he commented, adding that both the UK and South African governments were fully behind the project. 

He explained that the straight-line racing track at Hakskeenpan was a 20 km by 1.1 km strip, which took about seven years to prepare, with about 300 people from local communities having cleared 16 000 t of stone from the strip.

Green also noted that the “feeling is that this will create a lot of opportunities for employment”, adding that several film crews had already asked to use the track. He believed Hakskeenpan's desirability as a film location would only grow if the Bloodhound breaks the LSR.

Speed enthusiasts are also likely to want to visit the area.

Bloodhound continues to pursue a sponsorship and partnership model, with several companies already offering components or technical expertise to the Bloodhound team free of charge. Additionally, commercial director Ewen Honeyman told attendees that livery and title sponsorships were available.

Warhurst was using his own funds to maintain cash flow on the project; however, he would not confirm how much the project had cost him to date, only that it had reached “seven figures”.  

Should this phase of testing go well, Warhurst noted that the plan was to beat the LSR in 12 months’ time.