Maximum Land Speed Record To Be Toasted

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

A successful test of the “biggest rocket fired in the UK for over 20 years” cleared the way for an attack on the 1,000 mph mark in a car. According to Reuters, the rocket will be twinned with a fighter jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon. With that new “hybrid,” the team behind the Bloodhound supersonic car wants to smash the existing world land speed record of 763 mph and go all the way to 1,000 mph.

The test-firing took place in a bomb-proof military hangar at an airport in the southwest English town of Newquay. Apart from the rocket and the turbine, the car also uses a Cosworth Formula One engine, purely to pump peroxide-based rocket fuel into the combustion chamber.

Bloodhound plans to attack 1,000 mph on a dry lake bed called Hakskeen Pan in South Africa’s Northern Cape region in 2014.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • El scotto El scotto on Oct 04, 2012

    Robert Gordon, thanks for your knowledge and expertise in land speed records mate. I respect and admire the engineering behind this effort and the Wing-Commander who has the balls to drive it. I know you're passionate about all this, but for most of us it'll be a sound bite on the news, sorry.

  • Fred Smith Fred Smith on Oct 04, 2012

    That's the best use of a F1 engine I've heard of! Far better than playing a song.

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