Autoblog

The current land speed record (LSR) for an earth-bound motor vehicle is 763 mph, which was set by Andy Green behind the wheel of the Thrust SSC back in 1997. That car was designed by Richard Noble, among others, and he and his driver are teaming up again to build a new supersonic car (SSC) to shatter the old record on its way to a new LSR of 1,000 mph. The new car is called the Bloodhound Project, a curious name since "speed" doesn't readily come to mind when thinking about that particular breed of canine, but whatever. The new Bloodhound SSC will be powered by three engines: a hybrid rocket, Eurojet EJ200 jet engine and 800bhp V12 engine, the latter of which will pull the vehicle around at low speeds and act as a starter motor - the world's most powerful starter motor - for the jet engine. The car's design is also completely different from that of the Thrust SSC, which Green and Noble used to set the current LSR. That car had two outboard jet engines, but in order to reach speeds of Mach 1.4 on the ground, the Bloodhound SSC will use a narrower fuselage that's been aerodynamically optimized to safely travel at speeds approaching 1,000 mph. Since this is an engineering exercise, the Brit-based Bloodhound team will gear up to their ultimate goal by scheduling successive runs to reach 800 mph in 2009, 900 mph in 2010 and finally 1,000 mph in 2011. You can read more about the car from Noble himself at the project's website, or check out the current design mockup in our gallery below. Thanks for the tip, Qkthr!


[Source: BloodhoundSSC.com]

Single-engine jet-powered dragster seeking female companion for thrilling adventure across salt flats. Petite build. Background in motorsports or aviation. With sponsors. Interested parties please contact Eric Ahlstrom (eahlstrom@pyramid.net), program manager, Steve Fossett World Land Speed Racing Team.

It's not exactly the kind of personal add you'd normally find in your local newspaper, but those are the criteria required by a team mounting the latest attempt at the land speed record. The 48-foot-long land-bound jet is powered by a 40,000-hp S&S LM-1500 turbine mounted in a sleek, aerodynamic body that is claimed to have less than a quarter the drag coefficient of the Trust SSC, the – ahem – "vehicle", if you could call it that, which currently holds the record.

Unfortunately, the design of the jetmobile necessitated a tiny cockpit, so they need a tiny driver to operate the thing. The pilot will be involved in each step along the road to the record attempt, including feedback on developmental runs and system tests slated for the next couple of months before they finally make a run at the record. Anyone have Danica Patrick's number? Oh wait, we do!

[Source: Inside Line]

Click the Fusion for high-res images from Bonneville

Matt Zuehlk and his team comprised of engineers and technicians from Ford, Roush and Ballard Power Systems finally hit the Bonneville Salt Flats this past weekend after months of preparation and weeks of vehicle integration testing. On Sunday, Driver Rick Byrnes made a qualification run at over 161 mph with the hydrogen fuel cell-powered Fusion.

Now the team will be spending the rest of this week working their way up to over 200 mph as they try to establish a land speed record for a production-bodied fuel cell car. The Ford team is also working with the Ohio State University team who are trying to get their Buckeye Bullet 2 streamliner up over 350mph.

[Source: Ford, via AutoblogGreen]

Click on the Fusion for a gallery of shots from the first track test of the 999

Finished off in gray primer, the Ford Hydrogen Fusion 999 rolled out of the garage at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio this weekend. The team checked out all the systems on the vehicle, started up the fuel cell in the vehicle for the first time and then started some un-powered runs to check out the brakes and steering. A series of runs with a push start up to 60mph from a truck confirmed that details like the ability to stop in a timely manner did indeed function. Once they confirmed it would stop, it was time to see if it would go. For the full story on the development and testing of the hydrogen Fusion head over to AutoblogGreen. There's also a video after the jump.

[Source: AutoblogGreen]

click above image for more high-res pics of Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 Racer

Ford thinks it's time to make hydrogen sexy. Capitalizing on its 10 years of hydrogen research expertise, the automaker is headed to the Bonneville Salt Flats in August to go for a few world land speed records with a hydrogen fuel cell-powered Ford Fusion. Actually, there will be two vehicles going to Bonneville. The Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 pictured above is a collaboration with Ballard, Roush and Ohio State University. It features a 770-hp electric motor and is going after the production-based fuel cell-powered vehicle title. We're not sure what the current record is (ha ha, current), or if one even exists, but with 770 hp, we're guessing this Fusion should be good for some serious speed.

The second car is a bit more radical. Ford is working with student engineers from Ohio State University on the Buckeye Bullet 2. This one is a fuel cell-powered racer that will compete in the unlimited class. The "2" in the name should be a tip-off that these guys have tried this before. In 2004, the BB1 ran 315 mph and set the unlimited land speed record for an electric vehicle.

Full press release after the jump.

[Source: Ford]

A British team is out to demolish the land speed records for a steam powered vehicle in both the kilometer and the mile. The records are 121.6 mp for the kilo, set in 1906, and an unofficial 145.6 mph for the mile, set in 1985. As if using tap water to go stupid fast wasn't cool enough, they're doing it in a vehicle straight out of Buck Rogers' garage. The chief designer worked on both the Thrust 2 Jet Car and the ThrustSSC. The "car" in question is made of aluminum and carbon composites sitting a tubular steel frame. Out back, there's a two-stage, LPG-fired Curtis-type steam turbine fed by four boilers. Total output is only 325 bhp, but the team expects to break 200 mph using an output shaft gear ratio of 5:1. No word on whether Peter Gabriel is providing the official theme song.

Thanks for the tip, sr20boston

[Source: Steam Car]

The theme of the 2007 Festival of Speed was Spark of Genius – Breaking Records, Pushing Boundaries, and so it's fitting that Land Speed Record (LSR) vehicles were given a special display at this year's event. A group of the vehicles was arranged on the cricket pitch, including several from Bonneville Speed Weeks past. There was the 1960 Challenger 1 (4 engines, 400+ mph), The Blue Flame, which managed better than 630 mph in 1970, a Ford Coupe, some MGs, the 1949 SoCal belly-tank car (198 mph), and even the newest -- the JCB DieselMax that we have written about fairly extensively in the past year or so. There were many others as well, but none could top Babs.

With its huge 27-liter Liberty engine, it set a record of 170 mph in 1926 before crashing the next year. The driver didn't survive and the car itself was buried in a hole in the beach for a number of years. It was finally dug up in 1969 and restored. And Babs was here this weekend, all 20-something feet of her. The best part of that story is that Babs was fired up, to the appreciation of the crowd, and run up the hill all weekend. Oversteering in the rain and everything. It was an absolutely amazing vehicle amidst so many other great stories here at Goodwood.



All photos © 2007 Frank Filipponio / Weblogs, Inc.

Ford and Ohio State University are teaming up to attempt a double land speed record for fuel cell-powered vehicles. Ohio State already holds the land speed record for electrically driven vehicles at 315 mph with the battery-powered Buckeye Bullet. Now they are providing the motor and fuel cell that will power the Ford Fusion XV1 and the Buckeye Bullet 2 when they head out to Bonneville to try and set dual records for fuel cell powered vehicles in the unlimited and production classes. AutoblogGreen has the information and will be providing more coverage over the coming weeks and months.

[Source: AutoblogGreen]

Sister blog Gadling just posted this video of a French assault on the worlds fastest vehicle title. Forget the Veyron's 253 mph or the projected 273 that the SSC Ultimate Aero TT will do, this Gallic bullet just hit 357.2 mph! While the Bug and Aero have around 1,000 hp to help push them towards glory, this puppy packs a whopping 25,000 hp. And it's not just about top speed here, this baby corners like it's on rails. OK, it literally corners on rails because it's a train. It still rides on wheels. Fine, its a stretch, but it is a pretty amazing speed for a train. Although a Japanese bullet train still holds a slightly higher overall speed record at 361 mph, that was a mag-lev with no wheels touching the ground during the run. Semantics, sure, but fun none-the-less.

Actually, top-fuel dragsters are approaching these speeds, albeit in just a quarter mile, and various Land Speed Record streamliners have hit speeds in excess of 400 mph, but seeing something this huge hustling along the French countryside is breathtaking. This specially equipped TGV was pulling three double-decker cars and had larger diameter wheels fitted, plus it had a boosted engine and increased voltage in the overhead lines. But even the regular TGV motors along at around 300 km/h on a typical run. High speed trains are increasingly being pitched to markets as varied as China and California, so these tests serve not only to draw attention to this mode of transportation, but to test updates in track and engine configurations. The full video of the record run is after the jump.

[Source: Gadling]

Along with the LeMans sports racers from Audi and Peugeot, the JCB Dieselmax is probably the best poster child for how well a diesel can perform at the highest levels of motorsports. You may remember the JCB Dieselmax, as it was the streamliner that set a new Land Speed Record (LSR) for diesel cars last August by going more than 350 mph. We covered it quite extensively, as it was a pretty amazing feat. And we're not the only ones who took notice. The Dieselmax just won a fairly prestigious award.

This award is known as the Dewar Trophy, and it was presented by the Royal Automobile Club. They are pretty selective about handing out the trophy, as well. In the last hundred years, the trophy has only been awarded 39 times. Ricardo was the last to receive it for its work on the dual clutch transmission used in the Bugatti Veyron, among other vehicles. Coincidentally, Ricardo was also involved in the JCB Dieselmax project. It was one of the companies that helped construction giant JCB achieve a whopping 750bhp out of each of the Dieselmax engines. That level of thrust was good enough to push the LSR car to a two-way average of 350.092mph. And as test driver Andy Green explained, he never even had a chance to grab top gear!

[Source: Car Keys]