The Bloodhound is a British-built rocket-powered car that has been specially developed to break the land speed record. The “car” recently went on sale and got sold for a staggering $11 million.
Forget the V8s, V10s, V12s, and W16s, the Bloodhound is powered by the same Rolls-Royce EJ200 Jet engine that powers the pride of the Royal Air Force, the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet.
The Bloodhound with its Rolls-Royce Ej200 jet engine can easily break the sound barrier, the body built around it has to withstand the stress while attempting to break the sound barrier.
This means the body and other components of the Bloodhound are built to the highest standards so that the Bloodhound can survive the immense stress caused during these high-speed runs on the dessert.
To achieve these high speeds without breaking apart, the Bloodhound is designed with maximum aerodynamic efficiency in mind. This allows the Bloodhound to slice through the air with minimal stress around the body.
As a result of this extremely Aerodynamic design, the Bloodhound is extremely narrow and slender in design and looks more like a cruise Missile on wheels rather than a car.
To set a land speed record officially, the car must do two runs in both directions within 60 minutes of completing the first run, then the official speed is calculated by averaging the top speeds achieved on both runs.
This is one of the reasons, why many land speed record-breaking cars are not able to officially set their record-breaking runs.
So, in order to set an official record-breaking run, the car must not only be fast, but it should also be reliable to make the second run within the next 60 minutes and the pit crew should also be fast enough to prepare the car for the second run.
Thanks to these rules, the current land speed record stands at 1,227.93km/h achieved by Andy Green back in 1997. Interestingly, it is the same Andy Green who will be piloting the Bloodhound for speed tests and the record-breaking runs.
Speaking more about the Bloodhound, it requires 20tonnes of trust to achieve a top speed of 1,609.34km/h, which as mentioned earlier is supplied by a Rolls-Royce Ej200 jet engine.
Since the jet engines are built different, it also requires a different fuel and fueling system. For this an auxiliary power unit, which is a supercharged Jaguar V8 engine powers this fueling system to deliver 40-litres of high test peroxide.
Thoughts About The Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is the exact opposite of an everyday car, it is a once-in-a-lifetime car or is it even a ‘car’? Well, it has four wheels and runs on the road. So, technically it is a car and we wish the team behind the Bloodhound to break the land speed record and come up with a faster machine in the coming years.
Keyword: Meet The Bloodhound: A Car That Can Break The Sound Barrier