Good news for the 1,000mph car as Bloodhound gets a new owner

  • The car is powered by a combination of a hybrid rocket engine from Nammo and a Rolls-Royce jet engine from a Typhoon.
    Bloodhound LSR
  • Bloodhound LSR arrives at its new home at SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College (UTC) on the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park in England.
    Bloodhound LSR
  • Bloodhound’s new paint job is quite a departure from the blue-and-orange scheme of old. But don’t get too attached—if repainting it again in a sponsor’s color means it gets to run in South Africa, it’s getting repainted.
    Bloodhound LSR
  • Ian Warhust is Bloodhound LSR’s new owner.
    Bloodhound LSR
  • RAF Wing Commander Andy Green is the current Land Speed Record holder, and will remain on as Bloodhound’s driver.
    Bloodhound LSR

At the end of 2018, things looked pretty bleak for the Bloodhound SSC land speed record project. Breaking a land speed record has never been easy, particularly if the goal is to clear 1,000mph (1,600km/h). You need a highly engineered car, a rigorous test program, and a suitable bit of land upon which to run it. Which in turn means somewhere flat and remote enough for the neighbors not to mind, but convenient enough that you don’t have to also build a bunch of new roads to get there. Bloodhound SSC found such a place in the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa. But by October 2018, the project entered into administration (a UK equivalent to bankruptcy) when it ran out of funding. By December, with no buyer found, it looked like the dream was over.

Earlier this week, that all changed. The effort—now called Bloodhound LSR—has a new backer in Ian Warhurst, who bought the assets from the administrators at the end of last year. It’s also got a new HQ; the car has moved from its former base in Bristol, England, to SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College (UTC) on the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park (also in England).

“Since buying Bloodhound from the administrators last December, the team and I have been overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm the public have shown for the project. Over the last decade, an incredible amount of hard graft has been invested in the project and it would be a tragedy to see it go to waste,” Warhurst said in a statement. “Starting with a clean slate, it’s my ambition to let Bloodhound off the leash see just how fast this car can go. I’ve been reviewing the project and I’m confident there is a commercial business proposition to support it. I’ll provide robust financing to ensure there is cashflow to hit the high-speed testing deadlines we set ourselves.”

RAF Wing Commander Andy Green will still be Bloodhound’s driver, and many from the original team have also made the transition from Bloodhound SSC to Bloodhound LSR. The most noticeable change? A bright new coat of paint. The old blue-and-orange livery is no more; now it’s a white-and-red affair. This may change, though, as the plan is to offer title branding opportunities to potential sponsors in order to raise the sufficient funds to actually take the car to South Africa and run it for a record-breaking attempt.

Listing image by Bloodhound LSR

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1479423