Racecar delves into the tech behind this monster, with a full technical analysis in our 2018 January issue HERE.

The tech highlights of the Bloodhound SSC

Speed

• At 1,000mph the wheels will be spinning at 10,200rpm (170 times per second) four times faster than those on a Formula 1 car, which will generate approximately 50,000 radial g.
• The Bloodhound SSC record attempt will be the first land-based vehicle in history to travel above the speed of sound for a sustained period of time.

Aerodynamics

• The shape of the car has been designed to be Mach number insensitive to ensure it remains stable at 1,000mph or Mach 1.3.
• No wind tunnel goes to 1,000mph with a moving ground plane even with scale effects. Therefore, the team had to use a rocket sled instead which moved the object through the air, rather than the air over the object.
• The team used 200 rockets to complete 13 runs of the sled to verify the CFD.

Check out an exclusive Bloodhound SSC aerodynamic study by Ron Ayers and Andy Green in our September issue!

• Andy Green on his Bloodhound SSC

Power

• The total thrust required to get to 1,000mph is 20 tonnes.
• This phenomenal amount of power is provided from a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine as well as 3 rockets.

Stopping

• To achieve a valid record attempt the FIA rules state that the vehicle needs to go through the measured mile in both directions within 1 hour.
• Therefore, the car needs to complete a pitstop at the end of the first run. So, after hitting 1,000mph, the car has to decelerate and stop, which usually takes over 5.5miles, turn round and refuel.
• It takes airbrakes, 2 parachutes and wheel brakes to stop the car.

Fuel

• The Auxiliary power unit drives the rocket oxidiser pump which supplies 800 litres of high test peroxise to the rocket at 76bar (1,000psi) in just 20 seconds.
• This is equivalent to 40 litres (or 9 gallons) per second.
• This auxilliary power unit is a 55bhp Jaguar supercharged V8 engine.

The car has already completed a 200mph shakedown test run at Newquay airport in the UK last October. But to get this machine to 1,000mph requires some additional technology and another quarter of a million funding. If that money comes through then we could all still witness the Bloodhound SSC become the world’s fastest land speed vehicle.  

The Bloodhound SSC is not just about breaking the land speed record though, this fascinating project has played a key role in getting the next generation excited about engineering – an industry which is crying out for an influx of new brains and fresh ideas. We can only hope that someone with deep pockets will come and save the day.

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This is not a record that should be compared to the supersonic battle that is shaping up in 2016 (see: The fastest vehicles on earth), where vehicles which are closer in design and engineering terms to missiles and fighter jets than they are to automobiles. This is a record mainly fought for on the Bonneville Salt Flats and it is one that started back in 1898 when Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat pushed his electric car to a giddying speed of 39.24mph. Yeah thats right fastest car in the World was an EV, indeed that was the case until 1902!

But the really important date everyone looks to is December 1964, when the FIA decided to allow Jet powered cars to contest the land speed record, and that eventually saw Thrust SSC exceed the speed of sound. But the record for what many still saw as cars, the purists record if you like became a separate thing. In 1964, Donald Campbell set the record at 403mph in Bluebird CN7, and that stood for around a year until American Bob Summers took it away in his quadruple engined 2,400bhp streamliner ‘Goldenrod’, by clocking up 409.277mph. There the record remained until 1991 when Al Teague in his car, Spirit of ’76 raised the bar to 425mph, where it remained for another decade until a man called Don Vesco turned up with hit turbine powered streamliner ‘Turbinator’ which achieved 470mph on the flying mile and 458mph over the flying kilometre, and so the record remains, for now…

New technology, new ideas (and some old ones) have all come up and a group of cars has been built to challenge the record and they all have only one objective, to push the record to 500mph+

The following pages cover what are the fastest cars in the world, some of the cars on the list may surprise you others may not. Most of them were set to attempt the record at Bonneville in late 2014 but all of the events were rained out leaving them to wait for the ultimate showdown in 2015
Read on to find out about each of these amazing and very different cars.

Spirit of Rett

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In case you are wondering the proper quote is “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” It is from Macbeth. – SSC

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Read more on land speed record contenders in our January 2012 issue

The post Designing the world’s fastest car with CFD appeared first on Racecar Engineering.

The Land Speed Record is a strange thing, with a split between wheel driven and outright. There are many classes and many projects so we have decided to take a look at what are the fastest cars in the world – you won’t find cars like the Bugatti Veyron or Ultimate Aero on here, but the fastest speed machines in the world. It is not a complete list and not all of the cars actually exist yet!

Thrust SSC – 771mph

Ever since it broke the sound barrier at the Black Rock Desert in 1997 Thrust SSC has been the fastest car in the world. But it its records are very much under threat from projects like the Fossett LSR and the North American Eagle. The twin Rolls Royce Spey engined car set the bar at 763.035 but hit 771mph on on run. The car now resides in a museum in Coventry England. It will never run again.

Fossett LSR – 700mph+

Based on Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America Sonic Arrow the Fossett LSR was developed by a team of aviation experts. It has never run so its true potential is unknown but realistic projections put its peak speed at between 850 and 900mph. As Spirit of America it crashed whilst still accelerating at 700mph, the steering problem that caused that crash has been fixed. The car is currently for sale with a price tag of just $3m.

BAR-Honda 067 Lakester – 413kph

Back in 2006 for reasons nobody ever really understood the BAR-Honda team reworked one of its 067 interim test cars to turn it into the fastest F1 car ever. To do that the car would have to be fully compliant with the F1 technical regulations. It was and the car went to Bonneville but failed to achieve its target speed of 400kph. However it later exceeded this mark at a local airstrip. The speed it did was close to the record set at Bonneville by Chuck Billington’s purpose built Lakester. The 067 Lakester today is housed in the wind tunnel building at Mercedes Grand Prix in Brackley, England. It is still the fastest F1 car of all time.

JCB Dieselmax – 350mph

This very unusual PR project for earth mover firm JCB was built by English firm Visioneering and mated two specially tuned 750bhp JCB444 diesel engines usually used to power backhoe loaders and excavators. Before the team behind Dieselmax opted for a purpose built car they considered using a redeveloped Audi R8 Le Mans car to break the record. The car could not run to its full potential as the tyres it used could not exceed 350mph. The team had planned to find better tyres and go for the outright wheel driven record with the car but the project stalled.

Challenger 2.5 – 420mph+

Mickey Thompson first built Challenger 2 as the Autolite special in 1968 to beat the outright wheel driven land speed record. But despite claiming a potential of over 500mph, Thompson never got to run the car due to poor weather at Bonneville that year. He later sold the car, then bought it back and had started to re-develop it for son Danny to drive in the late 1980’s but when Thompson was murdered in 1988 the project stopped. But in 2011 Danny Thompson decided to restart it and the car is currently being rebuilt for a shot at the piston engined record before an outright record attempt in 2012.

North American Eagle 400mph+

Is it a car? is it a plane? well actually it is kind of both. North American Eagle is a heavily modified Lockheed F104 Starfighter. But despite a long flying history it is likely to be most famous for staying on the ground. Owner/driver Ed Shadle has put together a highly innovative team to adapt the fighter plane into the worlds fastest car. It has already tested on a number of occasions most recently at Black Rock in 2009, and El Mirage in 2008 where it hit 400mph. The target speed though is 800mph and the outright Land Speed Record. It is thought that a record run may take place in 2012

Aussie Invader 5R – 0mph

Rosco McGlashan nearly broke the outright record in 1996 with Aussie Invader 3 but missed out to Thrust SSC which raised the bar above the capability of the car. But McGlashan is back with the new rocket engined 5R, it has a very high potential, the car is currently in build in Australia.

Sonic Wind – 0mph

Waldo Stakes is one of those unlikely figures that litter the history of land speed racing. This American has a Bell X1 engine and a very compact car design. The current status of the project is unknown other than it is still underway, a mock up of the major components has been completed.

Jet Black – 0mph

In the history of the outright land speed record only four nations have held the record, the USA, England, France and Belgium. Jet Black hopes to add New Zealand to the list with its Rolls Royce Avon powered car. The project is in the early stages but a full scale mock up has been constructed. Testing should start in 2015.

Bloodhound SSC – 0mph

Much has been written said and claimed about the capability of the Bloodhound SSC, but the fact of the matter is that so far no metal has been cut aside from that used in the full scale mock ups, but the team behind the project are the best in the business and hold the outright record with Thrust SSC. The design of the car has sparked much controversy especially around its weight and hybrid rocket motor layout. It’s original target was 1,000mph.

Silver Bullet RV1 – 0mph

A new project from Australia, still in the planning phase.

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