The Bloodhound LSR supersonic rocket of a car is one step closer to its intended goal of setting a new world record for the highest land speed achieved by a vehicle, which for more than 20 years stands at 760 mph (1,223 kph),
The Bloodhound team is moving closer to the main objective gradually, a sort of better safe than sorry approach. During the latest test in the Kalahari Desert, Andy Green, the same pilot that got the Thrust SSC to over 700 mph back in 1997, managed to accelerate his new supersonic beast to 628 mph (1,011 kph), getting closer and closer to beating his previous record.
So far, this is the most impressive achievement that Bloodhound LSR managed, but keep in mind that the supersonic car is still in “testing” as they need to gather more data before going full throttle.
Asked if the Bloodhound was as good to drive as he hoped, Andy Greenhe replied: “No, it’s actually been worse. But that’s nothing to do with the car. It’s actually to do with the lateral wheel grip on the desert. I was fairly confident we’d be able to expand the crosswind limit to 15mph and Bloodhound would cope.
"And it can’t. At low speeds it’s like driving from snow onto ice – we were expecting that would happen at around 300, 350, 400mph but then at 500-600mph the aero load would build back up.”
The desert long “drag strip” where the action is taking place was manually cleaned and arranged by locals to make room for the supersonic vehicle.
The team behind the Bloodhound LSR does not intend to stop at only marginally beating the previous record, as their goal is to reach 1,000 mph (1,609 kph) somewhere between 2020 and 2021.
Until then, we can take a virtual seat inside the cockpit, and take a ride in this supersonic beast at a "modest" speed of over 600 mph. Truly impressive.
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