This thing is fast.
According to Bloodhound, its upcoming jet-powered rocket-car will cover four and a half football fields in one second. That's 150 metres in the time it takes you to blink. It's faster than a bullet fired from a 357 Magnum and it gets to 1000 miles per hour (1690km/h) in 42 seconds.
The Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) aims to break the world land-speed record by the end of 2012.
A full-scale model of the Bloodhound SSC has been shown at the Farnborough Air Show in England, which seems an odd place for a "car" to show up - but not when you know what the vehicle is packing under its pencil-shaped shell.
The "car" is set to be powered by three (yes, three!) engines - a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine, a hybrid rocket, and a 588kW V12 engine which is used to drive the 6.5-tonne Bloodhound around at low speeds.
The current land-speed record sits at 1227.99 km/h, and was set by the Thrust SSC in 1997. The Bloodhound has been designed to breeze past that record, on its way to a top speed of 1690 km/h.
The Bloodhound's long, thin body and ultra-long wheelbase means it's not much of a driver's car, though. According to the Bloodhound website, the SSC's turning circle is wider than a football field: a massive 120 metres - roughly 10 times that of a Holden Commodore.
The Bloodhound is currently undergoing testing, with construction set for completion sometime before the end of 2012.
The SSC is due to be piloted for the first time by driver current land-speed record holder Andy Green at the Hakskeen Pan desert flat in the Northern Cape region of South Africa.
All this raises the question - is the Bloodhound SSC a car? Tell us what you think in our comments section below.
source: thevine
