The Bloodhound vehicle with driver Andy Green
The Bloodhound Land Speed Record team on Monday achieved the car’s highest speed yet on the Hakskeenpan desert racetrack, in the Northern Cape, clocking 334 mph, or 537 km/h.
Bloodhound driver Andy Green said the max speed was reached going from 50 mph to 300 mph in 13 seconds.
The team has, so far, completed three “run profiles”, starting at 100 mph, building to 200 mph at Newquay in 2017, and hitting 334 mph in the third run profile.
The car’s EJ200 jet engine ran with full reheat, or afterburner, for 12 seconds, which demonstrated that it was in full working order.
“Run profile three marked the true beginning of the high-speed test programme, as all systems necessary for running with reheat have now been tested. The car’s speed will be built up in 50 mph increments over subsequent run profiles, which will be carried out over the next four weeks,” the Bloodhound team said in a statement.
The first run profile involved a static engine test, followed by a slow speed to check steering and brakes, while the second run profile involved max dry power – power without extra fuel or reheat – on the engine and then a coast-down to establish rolling resistance.
The team is targeting a top speed above 500 mph for this testing programme. Ultimately, the team wants to break the world land speed record that is currently 763 mph, or 1 227 km/h and held by Thrust SSC. The record was set in 1997 by a UK team led by Richard Noble and driven by Green.
Bloodhound said the first few runs in Hakskeenpan have proved the surface was consistently firm, albeit with a slight soft crust in some areas. This flakes away to leave a solid surface to run the car. The V‑shaped wheel profiles leave a shallow 50 mm wide groove in the desert surface.
The British-manufactured Bloodhound LSR car is a combination of fast jet, Formula 1 car and spaceship.
At full design speed (1 050 mph), the Bloodhound LSR could cover a mile, or 1.6 km, in 3.6 seconds – or 150 m in the blink of an eye.
The racetrack, in the Northern Cape, was prepared by a 317-strong workforce from the local community, funded by the Northern Cape provincial government, under the watchful eye of track boss Rudi Riek.