The World’s Fastest Car Moves Closer to 1,000MPH
When you’re building the world’s fastest car, you know what the most important part is? Making sure the wheels can turn fast enough to keep up and, just as important, don’t shred like cheese through a grater. The engineers behind Bloodhound seemed to have accomplished at least one of those goals.
Bloodhound is the British project to build the world’s fastest car. How fast? How does 1000 mph sound? That would obliterate the current record of 763 mph set by Thrust SSC, a UK team led by Richard Noble and driven by Andy Green. It’s probably no coincidence they are the project director and driver behind Bloodhound.
It’s a vehicle without peer (on terra firma at least) that plans to go for the world record in November at Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa. It was chosen because it’s perfectly flat, it’s 12 miles long, and it’s two miles wide.
Why are those dimensions so important? Because of Bloodhound’s power. It has three power plants: a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet from a Eurofighter Typhoon, a cluster of Nammo hybrid rockets and a 650-horsepower engine that drives the rocket oxidizer pump. Between them they generate 135,000 thrust horsepower, equivalent to 180 F1 cars.
Sorry, we had to breathe into a paper bag for a minute after reading those stats. Bloodhound recently wrapped up production on its aluminum disc wheels. As BBC.com reports, “These 90cm discs are a crucial element of the Bloodhound concept, and will have to endure huge loads as they spin at over 170 revolutions per second. Calculations indicate that at peak speed, the wheels will be generating 50,000 radial g at their rim. That’s 50,000 times the pull of gravity.”
Seriously? You think you’re bad when your Corvette pulls 1.3 Gs? OK, maybe it’s apples to oranges but 50,000 radial g? And as the report notes, there is a point when Bloodhound will be moving faster than the wheels can turn. When that happens, it’s not so much revolutions as it is rudders. They will slide.
The wheels, as one can imagine, are absolutely crucial to the success of the attempt. They fail and the whole attempt goes up in smoke. The wheels had to be machined to sustain anything bigger than a pebble being picked up by the front wheels. If that happens, those projectiles can blow through the rear wheels like a bullet.
The wheels are made of an aluminum alloy mix that contains small amounts of zinc, copper and manganese. It’s an alloy typically only used in space. Each of the wheels will cost about $400,000 each. Courtesy Keith Griffin.
