Jaguar and Tata Steel part of world land speed record project

If the ear-splitting noise and blistering speeds of Formula 1 racing cars take your breath away, just wait  to see the Bloodhound SSC (Supersonic Car) from the UK in action. It is set to raise the world land speed record above a mindboggling 1,000 mph (1,609kph).

Interestingly, if a successful Mangalyaan rendezvous in space brought global fame for India, on the ground it is now the turn of Bloodhound SSC to draw into the hall of fame home-grown players like Tata Motors and its sister concern Tata Steel which are associated with this ambitious project. 

The Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover is a key sponsor of the Bloodhound SSC project and is flying its vehicles to support the project teams in both UK and in South Africa where testing kicks off from mid-2015. Jaguar is also a supplier of a lot of technical expertise for the project, Andy Green, the visiting RAF fighter pilot, World Land Speed Record holder and pilot of Bloodhound SSC who will be racing the car over the South African desert told Autocar Professional today in New Delhi.   

Developed over a 5-10-year period as part of a visionary science and technology project – Bloodhound SSC – 5,600 schools and universities across UK collaborated to highlight the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in the country and to use it as a springboard to further careers of aspiring global students to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom. Over 5,600 UK primary and secondary schools have signed up to use free Bloodhound education resources in their classrooms as well.

As part of the Great Britain campaign underway in the British Council, the institution displayed the Bloodhound show car in Delhi to enlighten students about further studies and life in that country.

The Bloodhound SSC at full whack can cover a mile/1.6km in 3.6 seconds. The world land speed record of 763mph is held by Thrust SSC, a UK team led by Bloodhound’s Project director Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green.

The jet and rocket-powered Bloodhound show car of the Bloodhound supersonic car (SSC) has been built in sync with over 250 global companies including Tata Steel and Jaguar. It is a blend of car and aircraft technology with the front half made of carbon fibre monocoque like a racing car and the rear half being a metallic framework and panels like an aircraft.

It has a slender body where the outer frame has been made using Tata Steel and is around 14 metres long and 3.7 metres tall at its tailfin with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. It weighs over 7 tonnes and the engines produce more than 135,000 hp – more than 6 times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together!

It is equipped with three power plants – a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet from a Eurofighter Typhoon, a cluster of NAMMO hybrid rockets and a 650 bhp racecar engine that drives the rocket oxidiser pump. Between them they generate 135,000 hp, which is equal to the combined power of 181 F1 cars.

Fully assembled, it will look like a supersonic car on one side while the other side will consist of interactive touch-screens on each of the five panels that deliver a virtual tour of the design and build of Bloodhound SSC. The screens are adaptable and can feature bespoke video material and imagery to suit the target audience at events.

This supersonic car is currently being assembled at the Bloodhound Technical Centre in Bristol in England and will roll out in the summer of 2015 undergoing initial runway testing of up to 200mph (321kph) at the Aerohub, Newquay.

The team will then begin high-speed testing in South Africa with the target of reaching 800mph (1,287 kph). After a review of data in UK, the next testing of up to a speed of 1,000mph (1,609kph) will commence in South Africa in 2016.

“Next year, we are aiming for 1,300kmph, the year after at 1,600 kph. The year after that to a certain extent, it is up to the sponsors and the British government whether we have the car on tour because Jaguar is Tata owned. I am hoping to bring the car to India so that people can physically see it and then there will be a long-term educational legacy explaining how we did it. No one has ever done this before with a global audience, with this kind of extreme technology so it means a three-year time,” says Green. About 300 people have cleared the South African racing area of over 1,600km clear of rocks with their own hands to facilitate a smooth ride for the Bloodhound.

 “The Bloodhound is a thrilling piece of British technology, aiming to raise the world land speed record to over 1,600kph. I really hope that this engineering adventure will inspire Indian students to benefit from the world class UK courses on offer in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he adds.

Elaborating on Jaguar’s contribution, Green says that the rocket motor actually has a piston engine, a 550hp piston to drive the rocket pump that is the same engine that goes in the Jaguar F Type. “So we are using the 5.0-litre Jaguar V8 engine that is ideal, unlike what we were initially using that was a F1 engine that requires two hours of warming up and tuning over every 15 minutes that is really difficult. It requires a team just looking after the engine but with the Jaguar, there is no maintenance. You just press the button and it starts. So it is a quality, simple and reliable engine, just what we needed.”

Innovate UK, the Technology Strategy Board and an innovation agency, has played a key role in taking the new idea to market, supporting and connecting people and the programme to make it viable and sustainable.

Also read: Interview with Andy Green, driver of the Bloodhound SSC http://bit.ly/10QdL8E