Jet-engined Bloodhound LSR to resume quest to smash the 763mph land speed record

FOR the fastest car on the planet, the Bloodhound Land Speed Record machine hasn’t half taken its sweet time about things.

Remember the year 2008? I can, just about. I know it was the year Lewis Hamilton won his first F1 title and I had fewer grey hairs.

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It was also the year it was announced a team of ballsy Brits would set a new land speed record in a jet-engined car called Bloodhound.

It got the usual fanfare – a slot on Blue Peter, workshops in schools, the cream of engineering recruited for the chance of a lifetime.

But then . . . nothing. It spluttered and stalled for ten years before, finally, the wheels fell off, when it was announced they were £25million short of funding.

Guess you can’t find that sort of dosh down the back of the sofa.

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Finally, 11 years after we first got excited, the Bloodhound LSR team is ready to start proper testing, after being rescued from administration last December by a no-nonsense Yorkshire businessman  called Ian Warhurst.

In just a few days’ time, Bloodhound LSR will head to the South African desert to start high-speed testing powered by a Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine. The target is 500mph. If all goes well, driver Andy Green will return in late 2020 trying to smash his own 763mph land speed record.

And if that goes well, the original 1,000mph target is still a possibility.

Yep, 1,000mph. That’s a mile every 3.6 seconds.

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Or 4.5 football pitches laid end to end per second. Or 150 metres in the blink of an eye.

Warhurst said: “After so much work and several false starts, it is now really happening – and everyone can watch online.”

Excellent. I can’t wait to see Bloodhound let off the leash at last.

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•  Rachel is deputy editor at Autocar magazine.

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