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The project is looking for a new owner to take over the team and make an attempt at the world land speed record next year, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced delays to the ‘engineering adventure’ and made the long-term search for sponsors more difficult.
The team, currently owned by Yorkshire businessman Ian Warhurst, has already carried out high-speed testing of the car. In 2019, it hit a top speed of 1,011km/h (628mph) in the South African desert, proving its record-breaking capacity and validating computer modelling.
The project now needs to install the car’s Nammo monopropellant rocket, giving it a predicted top speed of over 1287km/h (800mph). The car will then be ready to run on its specially prepared 19.2km-long dry lake bed racetrack at Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape.
Completing the rocket installation and taking the car to South Africa to exceed 800mph will cost £8m based on the costs of the test programme to date, the project said.
Chief executive Warhurst saved the car from the scrap heap in 2018 and took the team to South Africa for testing in 2019. He is inviting a new owner to take over Grafton LSR Ltd, the holding company which owns the Bloodhound LSR project.
“It has been a privilege to lead this team of world-class engineers over the past two years. I was spellbound – along with a huge audience around the world – as we tested the car up to 600+ mph in South Africa,” he said.
With a global following and a high level of media coverage, including Channel 4’s 2020 documentary ‘Building the World’s Fastest Car’ , the project’s fundraising potential is “significant”, the announcement said. The project is expected to recoup increasingly large amounts through sponsorship and rights sales as the programme develops.
Warhurst added: “When I committed to take the car high speed testing in 2019, I allocated enough funding to achieve this goal on the basis that alternative funding would then allow us to continue to the record attempts. Along with many other things, the global pandemic wrecked this opportunity in 2020, which has left the project unfunded and delayed by a further 12 months.
“At this stage, in absence of further immediate funding, the only options remaining are to close down the programme or put the project up for sale, to allow me to pass on the baton and allow the team to continue the project. This gives someone with the right passion and available funding the chance to effectively swoop in at the last minute and take the prize. I will, of course, be cheering from the side-lines when Bloodhound smashes through 800mph.”
Work needs to restart in the next few months to get ready for a 2022 record attempt. The alternative would be putting the car into long-term storage, with no certainty of being able to restart the project.
Bloodhound driver Andy Green said: “In my opinion, the Bloodhound team has built the best land speed record car ever. It made our 628mph test run look easy!
“We’re now raring to get to 800mph+, to showcase this technical marvel and to invite a global audience to join in an incredibly exciting adventure. After the horrible 2020 pandemic year we have all just experienced, the world needs a good news story, and Bloodhound is ready to deliver it.”
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