The car, which was developed by the Bloodhound Land Speed Record team, is set to break the world land speed record in 2020
The world’s fastest straight-line car was unveiled in South Africa’s Hakskeenpan desert earlier this week. The British-built car, which was developed by the Bloodhound Land Speed Record (BLSR) team, has the ability to push over 500 miles per hour.
Powered by an EJ200 Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine (partially designed by Rolls-Royce), the car will tout 135,000 thrust horsepower, which is equivalent to more than 150 Formula One cars put together. The car also touts precision machined solid aluminium wheels, which are carefully crafted to withstand wear and tear from such intense speeds.
The BLSR team plans to put the car through a variety of tests at the Hakskeenpan desert racetrack before they attempt to break the world land speed record in 2020. One of the key tests will be to see how the car reacts when slowing down and stopping after reaching such high speeds.
Wing Commander Andrew Green, who has driven a previous version of the car in Newquay back in 2017, will remain the test driver leading up to 2020.
“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,” Mark Chapman, Bloodhound LSR Engineering Direction said in a statement.
Chapman says the difference in Hakskeenpan is that on a 10 mile track, they’ll be able to accelerate for much longer, which will achieve higher speeds, give insight on the car’s stability, performance, and drag, which are crucial aspects in setting a new world land speed record.
