The world’s fastest straight-line car, powered by a jet engine from an EJ200 Eurofighter Typhoon, was rolled out at the Bloodhound technical camp on the edge of the Hakskeen Pan desert, and presented to Northern Cape premier Dr Zamani Saul.
One of the key objectives of the high-speed testing programme is to evaluate how the car behaves when slowing down and stopping from a number of target speeds, building up to and beyond 800km/h. Only once engineers and Green are satisfied they understand the drag and stopping ability of the car will they push to the next run profile, building speed in each run by increments of 80 km/h.
The team will examine how much drag the car creates in a number of scenarios and at various speeds, using the wheel brakes, one or both of the drag parachutes, and with the giant air brakes locked into position.
Data from 192 pressure sensors on the car will be monitored and compared against the predicted computational fluid dynamic models to ensure they match up.
This data is critical to determine the size of the rocket that will be fitted to the car for the attempt to set a new world land speed record in 12 to 18 months’ time.
The Northern Cape government and members of the local Mier community undertook the painstaking process of removing 16,500 tons of rock from 22 million square metres of Hakskeen’s dry lake bed to ensure the Bloodhound car can run smoothly and safely.
It’s the largest area of land ever cleared by hand for a motorsport event, and the feat was recognised by the FIA motorsport governing body in 2016.