Bloodhound Supersonic Car Design Unveiled (VIDEO)

After three years of planning, the full design of the first 1,000 mph car was unveiled in Britain this week. It is named the Bloodhound SSC (Super sonic car) and is 12.8 meters (42 feet) long and will weigh an astonishing 14,160 pounds when fully fueled.

Three engines will be used to power the car: a prototype Eurojet EJ200 jet engine, a bespoke hybrid rocket, and an 800 hp petrol engine. The combination of engines will reportedly give the car the horsepower of about 180 F1 cars. The way it is said to work is that the car's jet engine will get it to 300 mph, and then the rocket will take it up to 1,000 mph.

The car was designed with the aim of breaking the land speed record, which is currently held by the Thrust SSC, which hit 763 mph, and thus broke the sound barrier, in 1997.

As the Bloodhound SSC's chief engineer told CNN: "The car will also break the low-altitude air speed record and be the fastest manned vehicle at sea level in the world."

The team is scheduled to deliver the car to South Africa's Northern Cape in 2012 where it will attempt to break the land speed record on a dried up lake bed.

Watch A Report On The Car:

Comments

[VeroucaSalt]

04:35 PM on 07/29/2010

Umm.... why?

[jubo]

02:25 PM on 07/29/2010

Now for that road to the moon...

[wlkcrk]

02:09 PM on 07/29/2010

Is this considered a hybrid?? How many gallons per mile does it get. Does it pass emmissions testing??

[DevonTexas]

02:39 PM on 07/28/2010

Supercar! (60's series)

[michelv]

11:52 PM on 07/27/2010

This is actually a very complex and difficult project in terms of aerodynamics and stability. I am sure it will lead to some new insights.

[audadvnc]

04:23 PM on 07/27/2010

Honey, I'm heading down to the store. Do you need anything?
Yes, dear, can you pick up a thousand gallons of hydrazine?
Sure thing, hon... what?

[RTIII]

03:31 PM on 07/27/2010

I am a land speed record holder. I hold the record for the fastest "36hp" Karmann Ghia. I think I'm only the fourth person to get an old 36hp-based VW engine, in a VW vehicle, up over 100 mph.

I intend to set a new record this year. My calculations show I've got about 15 more miles per hour, give or take, that I ought be able to get out of her - which is an awful lot more to go, percentage wise. Last year I had technical difficulties...

The rules restrict what the class I run in can do, in round-about terms, to the 1950s...

1000mph? Gee, OK, I guess, but not with _my_ engine!

If you want to see about it:

http://ghiacoachworks.com/share/denzel_lsr.html

[DevonTexas]

02:41 PM on 07/28/2010

downhill and with a tailwind!? But that is still my favorite car of all time! I had one, a convertible with no back window and rusted out floorboards. Perfect car! Smoked a bit tho! LOL

[drjasonmd]

12:48 PM on 07/27/2010

Ummm, lets review:

Can't turn, can't break, no cup holders and no Howard Stern on the radio. It's not a car; it's a rocket motor on wheels. Seriously. If I take an SRB from the space shuttle, lay it out horizontally, and shoot it across Lake Titicaca, does that make it a boat?

[RTIII]

03:10 PM on 07/27/2010

It can most certainly break. I'm not sure, but I suspect it can also brake.

[drjasonmd]

04:52 PM on 07/27/2010

No way they put brakes on that thing. They'd turn to vapor on the first tap. It probably just has a parachute and coasts to a nice long halt on some salt flat.

[Euterpe360]

09:33 AM on 07/27/2010

"I wanna go fast!"

[hagagaga]

10:10 AM on 07/26/2010

That's not a car.

[jasdmd0]

09:28 PM on 07/25/2010

I'm sensing a really cool Discovery Channel special coming up in the next few years about this car/land speed record attempt that I'll probably enjoy watching over and over and over!

[truenortherner]

06:32 PM on 07/27/2010

Or just as likely ... a new episode of "destroyed in seconds"?

[J D]

06:52 PM on 07/27/2010

in a similar vein... the 2012 Darwin Awards.

[VeroucaSalt]

04:36 PM on 07/29/2010

Or Darwin Award.

[eaglewing]

08:55 PM on 07/25/2010

Looks like an airplane.

[release the hounds]

06:00 PM on 07/25/2010

It's hard to imagine a bigger waste of time, money, and energy than this.

[Euterpe360]

09:34 AM on 07/27/2010

Perhaps your HP comments?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[drjasonmd]

12:49 PM on 07/27/2010

Oh no you didn't!

[kasukabe]

05:44 PM on 07/28/2010

If the world was full of people like you we'd still be sitting in caves trying to hack the meat of a mastodon with stones.

[paxatman]

04:43 PM on 07/25/2010

This stuff is very exciting and useful to humankind's insatiable curiosity. But sometimes I just gotta go home and hug my lawnmower.

[jdbond]

07:31 AM on 07/25/2010

And here I was expecting a practical "car"...

[Tom Joad]

10:45 AM on 07/25/2010

...not at all practical for the family of four...