Bloodhound SSC Team On The Road To 1,000 MPH

Land speed racing sure moves slow sometimes. Unlike other forms of motorsports, like Formula 1, where there are new cars every year, land speed racing moves more in fits and starts, most of the time. Practically speaking, there's no set season. The whole game essentially moves forward when one of the competitors sets a new, best speed mark. Then it's up to everyone else to figure out how to beat it.

A British effort, known as Bloodhound, thinks they've come up with a way to not just beat the existing record, but shatter it and produce a car that can run at over 1,000 MPH. Yes, that is very, very fast, and yes, getting your sums just right at those kinds of velocities is not easy.

Easy or not, the Bloodhound SSC aims to 1,000 mph, or Mach 1.3, on the ground. Their answer on how to accomplish this starts with not one, but THREE different power sources. For starters, there's the 800-horsepower, V-12 racing engine that serves as the workhorse that pumps the hydraulic power for the EJ200 jet engine and the High Test Peroxide (HTP) for the hybrid rocket strapped to the car's back.

Yes, you read that right, a V-12 AND a jet engine AND a rocket. Bloodhound says that's more than enough power to take their car as fast as Mach 1.4. At those kinds of velocities, power isn't the problem, aerodynamic stability is, and that means eliminating lift on the rear of the car.

If the rear end lifts, the rear wheels will lose traction, and the car would spin out of control with disastrous results. At that kind of velocity, there's now way in Hell you can protect the driver. If this guy comes unstuck at speeds approaching 1,000 mph, there'll be a literal smoking crater on the desert floor.

At any rate, the Bloodhound team thing they've found the answer. They've done a full parametric study of the Bloodhound's aerodynamic loads across the entire car and they think they have eliminated lift at the target speed. The focus on the latest configuration, the team's tenth, is on the rear wheel and suspension strut area, as well as the boat-tail section of the Bloodhound.

So they seem to think they have a handle on how to crack through a 1,000 miles per hour without the Bloodhound going all catawampus. They better have it figured out, because if they don't, these things car get real ugly real quick.

Source: Motor Authority