The ‘world’s fastest straight-line car’ has been unveiled in South Africa’s Hakskeenpan desert.
The car, which has been developed by the Bloodhound Land Speed Record (BLSR) team, can travel at staggering speeds of over 500 miles/hour, and could break the world land speed record in 2020.
It’s powered by a EJ200 Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine and features precision machined solid aluminium wheels, which are designed to withstand the stresses of travelling at supersonic speeds.
The BLSR team will put the car through its paces at the Hakskeenpan desert racetrack, before attempting to break the world land speed record next year.
One of the key objectives of the tests will be to see how the car behaves when slowing down and stopping, having reached such huge speeds.
Mark Chapman, Bloodhound LSR Engineering Director, said: “Newquay was all about getting up to speed and finding out how quickly we could get the engine to full power and accelerate using max reheat.
“Andy was on the throttle for two seconds to reach 200 mph (322 km/h) in eight seconds.
“Here at the Hakskeenpan on a 10 mile (16 kilometre) track we can accelerate for much longer, achieve higher speeds and investigate the car’s stability, performance and drag, all crucial as we move towards setting a new world land speed record.”
One of the key pieces of technology at the test track is the Low Power Wide Area Network IoT remote sensor array.
This system uses stations every 1km along the track, which record wind speed and direction - which are key when the car is going at such speed.
Peter Karney, a spokesperson for Digital Catapult, the firm behind the technology, explained: “The car is aiming to go faster than any other land-based machine built thus far.
“At the speeds hoped for, unexpected cross wind could significantly affect the stability and direction of the vehicle and are therefore a key decision point on when to run the car.
“We will be measuring and storing accurate data at 1 km points along the track and therefore this info can be used by the team to plan the run.”
