10 years of sweat and toil have gone into designing and building the supersonic car that its team of developers hopes to take past the current world land speed for 4-wheeled vehicles of 763.035 mph (1,228 km/h) and up to 1,000 mph (over 1,609 km/h). Now the long-awaited Bloodhound SSC has been unveiled.
Measuring 44 feet (13.41 metres) in length and weighing 7.5 tons (16, 535 lbs), the Bloodhound is made of 3,500 parts, and includes a V8 engine supplied by partner Jaguar that serves to pump a hydrogen peroxide oxidizer into the rocket engine. That rocket engine is a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine that will work with customized hybrid rockets developed by defense firm Nammo to generate an astronomical 135,000 HP, and it is possibly the most complex propulsion system ever built.
The Bloodhound SSC is also equipped with three distinct braking systems to ensure its capacity to stop after attaining its staggering top speeds. It features as well seven extinguishers and 500 sensors, twice the number found in a Formula One car.
At a special event in spring 2016 at Newquay in England, the Bloodhound SSC will be driven at 200 mph (322 km/h); in August, it will attempt to set a new land speed record in South Africa. The plan then is to take it past the 1,000 mph mark in 2017!