BLOODHOUND SSC: INSIDE THE 1,000MPH CAR

A team of engineers in Bristol, England are working on a new car – the Bloodhound SSC. They have one simple aim: to drive at 1,000mph (1,609kph). That’s right, one thousand miles per hour.

No one has ever driven so fast. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport can hit just 267mph. When Top Gear’s Richard Hammond crashed, he was travelling at 288mph. The current world land speed record is 763mph, so it would seem we’re still quite a way off the 1,000mph marker.

If anyone’s going to do it, it’ll be the team behind Bloodhound. The project director Richard Noble and driver Andy Green set the previous record in 1997, using Bloodhound’s predecessor, the Thrust SSC.

The team has now released more information about the project, including a sneak preview of what it looks like from behind the wheel...

If anyone’s going to do it, it’ll be the team behind Bloodhound. The project director Richard Noble and driver Andy Green set the previous record in 1997, using Bloodhound’s predecessor, the Thrust SSC.

The team has now released more information about the project, including a sneak preview of what it looks like from behind the wheel...

This isn’t an amateurish effort by any means. It has taken more than 10,000 hours to design and manufacture the cockpit alone.

Sandwiched between carbonfibre are layers of aluminium core to provide additional strength. At its thickest point the monocoque is made of 13 layers, but is just 2.5cm thick. All of this carbonfibre results in a crucially low weight, coming in at 200kg.

When a vehicle is travelling at four-figure speeds, the cabin is subject to extreme forces. The carbon front section has been designed to cope with aerodynamic loads of up to three tonnes per square metre. Imagine three tonnes of air whacking you in the face.

Air deflected by the bodywork will travel five times faster than a hurricane. This thing had better be pretty well put together…

The cabin will feature bulletproof armour to protect the driver.

No, he’s unlikely to be shot, but if a stone flicks up from the Bloodhound’s wheel at high speed it could cause serious damage.

But won’t somebody please think of the birds? What happens when an unsuspecting sparrow and 1,000mph jet-powered vehicle meet?

Well, sorry to break this to you, but there's only one winner here. You’ll be pleased to know that the driver will be fine, however, thanks to a windscreen that’s thicker than a fighter jet’s and designed to cope with hitting a 1kg bird at 900mph. It’s considerations like this that make the Bloodhound a little bit different to your average road car.

It’s not just stones and birds that Green should be worried about. Behind the cockpit there are three incredibly loud motors – the jet, a cluster of hybrid rockets and a racing car engine. Between them, they’ll generate an estimated 135,000hp – equal to 180 Formula One cars.

Think about how much noise something like a Ferrari makes. And the kind of soundproofing you get in a normal road car would only add unwanted weight.

Fortunately, much of the noise will be directed away from the cabin and, once the Bloodhound reaches around 750mph, the driver won’t hear it as he’ll be driving faster than the speed of sound. As you do.

With most car speedos rarely running to more than around 150mph, some special dials were needed for the Bloodhound SSC. There’s a central screen that uses GPS to display the speed in mph, as well as a Mach number (Mach 1 being the speed of sound).

There are also dials indicating jet engine and rocket outputs, as well as speed indicators telling Green when to fire the rocket and deploy the braking systems. He’ll even be able to read the temperature, pressure and fuel levels of the three engines, and a Rolex speedometer going up to 1,100mph will provide back-up should the digital dashboard fail.

As the Bloodhound will often be prepared before dawn, it even features interior lights so the engineers can see what they’re doing. The cockpit walls are white to maximise the available light, while the instrument panels are coated with a special non-reflective grey so the dials can be easily read.

A bespoke 3D-printed steering wheel has been designed, shaped to Green’s fingers. It features buttons for the radio (for contacting the team), airbrakes and parachutes, as well as triggers on the rear to prime and fire the rockets. Cool.

The pedals are pretty typical. There’s a left pedal for applying the wheel brakes, and a right pedal for accelerating using the jet engine.

The wheel brakes will only be used for slowing the car down from speeds below 200mph, and will contribute to only 1% of the total braking. If they’re applied at speeds above 200mph, they’ll catch fire, somewhat reducing their efficiency.

So, when will the record attempt take place? Well, it’s not the sort of thing that can be planned overnight – testing at speeds up to 200mph is expected to take place in the UK in the summer of 2015.

The team then plans to head to South Africa in 2016 with the aim of hitting 1,000mph. We wish them luck.