Yahoo Autos Bloodhound SSC's 1000-MPH Record Attempt Postponed Until 2018
The quest to drive the fastest car in the world has hit yet another slowdown: The Bloodhound SSC team has announced that its attempt to break the 1000-mph barrier will be delayed until 2018.
In a message posted to The Bloodhound Project website, the team explained that the summer of 2018 is the new target window for the 1000-mph attempt. Flooding on the Hakskeen Pan, the mud-and-salt-flat in South Africa where the attempt will take place, had a part to play in the delay, as did gaps in funding as new corporate sponsors sign on.
"It is frustrating to change our schedule again-we know everyone is excited about seeing the car run," Project Director Richard Noble said in a statement. "We want that too but our pace of development has to be pegged to the flow of funding."
Between now and the summer of 2018, the Bloodhound SSC team plans to run a series of static "tie-down" tests, firing the Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine after it's installed in the car. Later this year, the team hopes to conduct rolling testing on the runway at Newquay Aerohub.
The Bloodhound SSC, we'll remind you, is powered by both jet and rocket engines. The jet, cribbed from a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and fed by a fuel pump powered by a Jaguar V8 engine, will take the car to around 300 mph. At that time, a series of rocket engines will fire, hopefully taking the car past the current land-speed record velocity of 763 mph and all the way into four digits. Fighter pilot Andy Green, who holds the current record, will be at the wheel for the 1000-mph attempt set for 2018.
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