Bloodhound, the land speed record car bidding to set a new supersonic land speed record of around 800mph in South Africa next year, has been shown in ‘desert spec’ ahead of a series of high speed tests. It’s the first time the Brit-built car, which was rescued from the administrators earlier this year, has been seen with its tyre-less machined solid aluminium wheels: the ones to be used for the outright record attempt. The long-promised testing shakedown will take place on a specially prepared 20km (12.4-mile) track at Hakskeen Pan in the Kalahari Desert, near the Namibian border. To test the installation of its Rolls-Royce EJ200 Eurofighter gas turbine engine, the car was late last month successfully given a “dry crank” at its Gloucestershire HQ which involved having the exhaust output of a smaller jet engine blown into its intake to rotate the moving parts of the main motor. “It involves turning the engine without activating the ignition,” says engineering director Mark Chapman. “It’s like a last look under the hood.” In South Africa, the Bloodhound team plans a series of 13 runs to test high-speed aerodynamics and stability, especially a 400mph-plus transition phase when steering authority delivered by the front wheels’ grip on the track surface changes and the front wheels become rudder-like aero devices. Engineering director Mark Chapman expects the car to exceed 500mph in these initial tests, although he says high speed is not the biggest issue this time. “The 200mph testing we did at Newquay Airport in October 2017 was all about accelerating the car, about checking that we could generate thrust from standstill,” he says. “The car was only at full power for about two seconds.” “In South Africa this time our EJ200 engine will develop its full 54,000 horsepower for nearly a minute, but the main emphasis will be on stopping. The biggest engineering challenge of all is stopping a car as fast as this without running out of desert. “We’ll be testing a two-parachute braking system, and of course we have friction brakes that work best below about 200mph. On top of that, we’ll do handling tests and investigate stability changes. And we have to see how well the team can perform under pressure in heat that might hit 40deg C.” Engineering millionaire Ian Warhurst, whose “seven-figure” investment rescued the project from receivership early this year at the last minute, says the project will seek financial and technical backers in earnest once the first South African testing is successful. “I’m very optimistic about the future,” he says. “We have a great deal of interest from potential backers, once the car has run. It was always clear, given the history of this project, that first of all we needed to show we can make things happen.” Bloodhound will be driven by former RAF jet pilot and current record holder Wing Commander Andy Green, who, back in 1997, became the only person ever to drive a car at supersonic speed on land when he took his Thrust SSC to a new mark of 763.035mph. The team members believe they can achieve 800mph as a first step. The record attempt is scheduled to take place late in 2020, but the team has set no timetable for their other, much tougher objective of achieving 1000mph on land. “We’ve divided our aims into two separate phases,” says Warhurst, owner and CEO of the project’s supporting company, Grafton LSR. “We’ll concentrate on the record first, and when we’ve achieved that, we’ll use the data and knowledge gained to make a judgement about whether to go for the second phase.” The test track at Hakskeen Pan been specially prepared on a dry lake bed by 317 members of the local Mier community. Working by hand, they have removed more than 16,500 tonnes of stone in preparation for Bloodhound’s runs. Thirteen parallel tracks have been laid out, because the car’s unique aluminium wheels – which don’t have tyres because the rotational speed would throw them off the rims – penetrate the track’s hard surface as they run, and “up to 13” runs are planned for this first trip to South Africa. The new Bloodhound ownership team is maintaining its role as an attraction to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects for school-age students, by making its results and research findings publicly available. “This is the first land speed record attempt of the digital era,” says Warhurst. “Digital platforms can share data in real time from hundreds of sensors on the car, allowing budding engineers to see exactly how the car is behaving as it dices with physics.” Warhurst is funding the current preparations himself but is depending on the upcoming tests to attract new backers, especially title and livery sponsors. For now, the car is painted all white, but Warhurst believes when it “does something”, interested corporate and technical partners, currently waiting in the wings, will come forward. The project moved from its old base near Bristol and is now based in
Origin: Bloodhound shown in ‘desert spec’ ahead of high-speed tests
desert
Meet the injured armed forces team taking on the desert in Dacia Dusters
The hardscrabble town of Boudenib, the base for the opening stages of this year’s Carta Rallye, is nestled on the edge of the Sahara desert, 10 miles or so from the Algerian border in the far east of Morocco. Not that you’d know it from the weather. As the assembled crews prepare all manner of outlandish rally-raid machinery for the seven-day, 1250-mile marathon, including Dakar-honed Mitsubishi Pajeros, spaceframe buggies and monstrous trucks, the rain is lashing down, a bracing wind is causing havoc and the desert scrubland has become a Glastonbury-esque mud bath. In the unexpected downpour, the spirits of the competitors are as leaden as the grey skies. But one crew stands out – and not just because, amid all the heavily modified rally cars, their three Dacia Dusters look as though they’ve been wheeled in from a showroom. They’re briskly carrying out their tasks with no regard for the rain, pausing only to trade jokes and banter. “This is what we do,” says Scott Garthley, shrugging. “It’s just basic training for us.” Given the 14 members of the Future Terrain team are all current or former military service personnel, he’s not exaggerating. Many of the team have severe physical injuries. Others have mental injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet there are no complaints, no excuses. They’ve been preparing for the Carta Rallye for months. Rain isn’t going to stop them. Future Terrain isn’t the first motorsport initiative for injured service personnel, or even the first rally-raid one: Race2Recovery raised money for charity by twice running a team on the Dakar Rally. Although inspired by that project, Future Terrain is very different – and that’s shown by the team’s desert orange Dusters. “We’re here for motorsport, but it’s a background to what we’re really trying to achieve,” says co-founder Grant White. “We could be doing anything, really.” White, a former British Cross Country Championship (BCCC) competitor, helped establish Future Terrain in 2016 after meeting some of the original Race2Recovery team. At the time, BCCC crews could feature a disabled driver or co-driver. The charity successfully argued for crews made up of two disabled competitors. But while cross-country rallying is the focus, there are no Dakar ambitions. White says: “What Race2Recovery achieved by becoming the first team of amputees ever to finish the Dakar Rally was incredible, but the costs of competing weren’t sustainable. Future Terrain was inspired by their success but we want to be more accessible and put the emphasis on real-world training. We hope we’re building on their legacy.” By focusing on the BCCC, initially in Land Rover Freelanders, Future Terrain could reach 40-50 veterans on a far more modest budget compared with competing in the Dakar Rally and appeal to a wider audience. The team would run one car in the event, giving passenger rides in a second. “The driving becomes a background activity,” says White. “Where the real magic happens is in camp. It’s where people open up about their issues.” The push beyond the BCCC came after Dacia supplied Future Terrain with four diesel Dusters. Three were ready for the Carta: one with a competition-spec roll-cage (allowing it to compete in the BCCC), two with external cages for use in demos and events such as the Carta. The Dusters allowed Future Terrain to expand its ambitions, but still at an accessible level: the Carta Rallye is an amateur-level event and the Dusters ran in the GPS Cup section, in which crews navigate between a series of co-ordinates within a set time. The emphasis is on navigation and reading the terrain, rather than flat-out driving. For armed forces veterans, especially in the desert environment, it’s familiar conditions. The aim is to show veterans how the skills they’ve learned serving can be applied outside the armed forces. “Being in the military is consuming,” says White. “People define themselves by their roles. Once people leave, they need to redefine themselves and that’s not easy when you were the sniper or explosives expert.” It’s tougher still when you have life-changing physical or mental injuries. White says the armed forces offer a “fantastic” support network, but adds such support “can re-emphasise the injury. We want to pull people away from defining themselves by their injuries.” The 14-strong Future Terrain Carta team are a diverse group, with varying service histories, injuries and motorsport experience. For example, Dan Grimes is currently in the army, and it shows. When the team encountered another crew surrounded by local kids pelting their car with rocks, Grimes jumped out to scare them off through sheer presence. Grimes joined the team after hearing about it at the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre in Nottinghamshire, where he’s undergoing treatment for a severely injured knee and ankle. His injuries were traced to bone chips to his tibia, sustained after a
Origin: Meet the injured armed forces team taking on the desert in Dacia Dusters
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