Engineering news
Chinese carmaker Geely has become the main sponsor of the Bloodhound supersonic car, providing enough money to clear the project’s debts and pay for its ongoing costs.
Geely is the largest privately-owned automotive company in China, owns Volvo Group and also makes black London taxis.
The Bloodhound team announced in July it had sufficient money to enable the car’s 800mph record attempt at Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, in October next year.
A second run to take the car to 1,000mph is planned to take place during 2018.
At an event held at Bloodhound’s technical centre in Bristol to reveal the new sponsor, project director Richard Noble confirmed that it had 70% of the budget required to run the car for the world land speed record attempts.
“We’re not quite there yet, but people now understand that Bloodhound is going to happen,” he said. “Geely brings financial resources to bear, will share the technology and take Bloodhound’s message to a vast global audience.”
Geely said: “We have shared core values with Bloodhound – we’re about pushing the boundaries and educating and innovating. We will provide engineering support, technology, and push the Bloodhound story in China. Geely engineers from China will work alongside Richard Noble.”
Tests with the rocket engine and mono propellant are planned for next June, followed by a low-speed run in Newquay during the summer.
Although there is funding for the first run in South Africa, extra money is still required for further development and modifications for the second, 1,000mph run in 2018. The single rocket fuelled by a mono propellant has to be replaced with a cluster of three hybrid-fuel rockets so the Bloodhound car can reach the higher speeds for the second run.
Mark Chapman, director of engineering for Bloodhound SSC, said that there was a “huge amount” of work going on with the rocket and that a rebuild of the fuel tanks and structure was happening. He added: “The blue and orange shiny car is great, but there is an awful lot of work going on in the background to move to South Africa.”
Noble said: “Bloodhound is a massive undertaking and it’s got to be global. We need the right partners to take it forward and we could not have a better partner than Geely.”
October 2017’s record attempt will be 20 years to the month that its predecessor, Thrust SSC, set the existing land speed record of 763.035mph. The 1997 record is longest standing record in the history of land speed records.