It’s official! The Bloodhound Supersonic car will finally make its first appearance on South African soil in October.
The new owner of the project, Ian Warhurst, made the announcement in the United Kingdom on Wednesday.
Engineers will attempt to go at 800km per hour during the spring visit as it prepares its onslaught on the land speed record of 1600km per hour.
The road to the Bloodhound’s record attempt has been a bumpy one as financial strains saw the record attempt being postponed several times.
In 2017, estimation were the record attempt would cost R400 million. Now under new management, they predict a much smoother ride.
Warhurst says they are moving at a fast pace now.
“We are moving so fast now. It’s really great. The project is running at such a pace. Everyone is really excited over here and, as far as we are concerned, we’re coming to SA with the car. We’ve got all the paperwork to sort out; a lot of final administration to work out, but both governments in the UK and SA are working very well with each other.”
Hakskeenpan, in the Northern Cape’s Kalahari, is the chosen spot for the record attempt.
Ali Diteme from Northern Cape Economic Development says that they are looking forward to the testing.
“Organisers have assured the department that they’ve sourced all the funding for all the projects and as a result, we are quite sure that this time around we will proceed with the 2019 testing. We are looking forward for that initiative precisely because the community in that area going to benefit.”
Engineers have already taken the Bloodhound for a 320km per hour test drive in the UK, but they now want to open the throttle and see how it performs at more than double that speed.
Various tests will be conducted during the high speed trials in October.
Engineers from around the world will be able to watch in real time how the car performs during the high speeds tests. The land speed record runs for 1600km per hour are scheduled for late 2020.
