The Bloodhound 1000mph Project Is Officially Dead
Bloodhound, the project aimed at setting a four-figure land speed record, has collapsed. After entering administration in October with high hopes of sourcing the necessary funding, all leads have dried up and the project is finished.
The endeavour, founded by the existing and previous land speed record holders, Andy Green and Richard Noble, has been low on cash ever since testing at Newquay airport last year – albeit only at 200mph.
The figures involved in running Bloodhound, which is essentially a Rolls-Royce jet engine strapped to a rocket and a cockpit, up to higher speeds are eye-watering. An estimated £5 million was needed to get the ‘car’ to hit 500-600mph along the 11-mile-long South African facility designed to host the actual record attempt.
To touch 800mph and break the current 763.035mph record would cost £15 million, and to turn everything up to 11 and go for the full 1000mph needed a £25 million injection. No investor could be found despite plenty of initial interest reported by administrators FRP Advisory – the company that found new ownership for the Force India F1 team this season. Andrew Sheridan of FRP, whose job it was to try to secure the funding, told the BBC.:
“Despite overwhelming public support, and engagement with a wide range of potential and credible investors, it has not been possible to secure a purchaser for the business and assets.
“We will now work with the key stakeholders to return the third-party equipment and then sell the remaining assets of the company to maximise the return for creditors.”
After that, almost nothing will remain of the decade-old mission to break the 1000mph barrier.
Comments
Title says 100mph, sorry…
Yep, classic case of FUBAR then FML. Updated now!
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It’s bad and all but this matters to most of us way more
Some kind of glitch, is it? I’ll make sure the team are told.
It seems to be from comments that appear to have been uploaded by the commenter but don’t appear when observed later. I’ve had this happen after commenting myself a couple times.
At the very least the Land Speed Record still belongs to GB
……. Brother…
Matt, fix the 5car fleet article
It sucks this project will never happen, I know if it had run Andy Green OBE would be “Sir” Andy Green OBE, but I just hope someone gets this project going again. this NEEDS to happen!
This doesn’t come as an enormous surprise but that’s not to say it hasn’t upset me a little bit.
Back in the summer of 2015 I visited the industrial estate (somewhere near Bristol I think) where they were putting the bits together. I met a lot of the people involved. It was a very understated affair - the carbon monocoque, the Rolls-Royce Eurofighter turbine and its enormous titanium cover lying around on jacks and trolleys.
One of the guys handed me the 3D-printed steering wheel off a shelf. Every single bit of this project was so gloriously over-engineered; an engineers wet dream. I held that steering wheel in both hands and thought “In a few years this steering wheel will be going 1000mph with Andy Green’s fingers wrapped tightly around it”.
From then on the project had a place in my heart. I’m sure it did for many people. A British engineering project for the ages. My thoughts go to those involved.
Its back now
Lawrence Stroll, do you want your son to be the first driver to go 1000mph?
That comment is the only good thing to have come out of this tragic news
Well that was a waste of time and money
Whats gonna happen to the car though?
My guess is strip it and sell the parts or put it in a museum. I think it’s likely that they won’t keep the Eurofighter engine in it though.