Bloodhound LSR will run for the first time at Hakskeenpan in South Africa in October 2019. These will be high speed runs at between 300 and 500mph (480‑800km/h), which are needed to allow the team to test many aspects of the car and all operational procedures in advance of the world land speed record runs, currently planned for late 2020.
The high speed tests will be done using the using the car’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, which was successfully used in the low speed tests at Cornwall Airport Newquay in 2017. However, many other aspects of the car will be different, such as the wheels, which will be solid aluminium wheels specially designed for the desert surface. Springs and dampers have been uprated, and the team has added the parachute braking system, extra air pressure and load sensors, and a fire detection and suppression system.
During low speed trials in 2017, driver Andy Green, the current world land speed record holder, drove the previously blue and orange liveried car from a standing start to 200mph in 8 seconds.
“High speed testing is a key part of setting a new world land speed record,” explains Andy. “Building on everything we achieved in Newquay in 2017, we’ll learn a tremendous amount by going fast on the desert the Car was designed to run on. This is where science meets reality and it all starts to get really exciting!”
Performance testing
High speed testing using the car’s Rolls-Royce jet engine will test the car’s performance and handling during one of its most vulnerable phases: the stage between 300 and 500mph (480‑800km/h). Here, the stability of the car transitions from being governed by the interaction of the wheels with the desert surface to being controlled by the vehicle’s aerodynamics.
The grip from the wheels will fall off faster than the aerodynamic forces build up, so this is likely to be the point where the car is at its least stable. Bloodhound LSR will make up to 10 runs at these speeds during high speed testing.
Data on the interaction between the solid aluminium wheels, which will be used for the first time, coupled with ‘base drag’ measurements, will provide ‘real world’ insight into the power required to set records. Base drag relates to the aerodynamic force produced by low pressure at the rear of the car, sucking it back. As the car approaches transonic speeds, this force far exceeds the friction of the air passing over Bloodhound’s bodywork.
Terabytes of information will be gathered by over 500 sensors and cameras built into the car during the high speed tests. This will be shared with academics at Swansea University where students will be invited to analyse the data to validate the Computational Fluid Dynamics model ahead of the land speed record attempt.
The trials in South Africa will enable the team to test this data distribution, as well as the live video stream, at high speeds in preparation for the land speed record runs.
Operational testing
High speed testing will also be a full dress rehearsal for the overall record-breaking campaign. The team will use its time at Hakskeenpan in autumn 2019 to develop its operational procedures, perfect its practices for desert working and test radio communications.
Facts about Bloodhound’s High Speed Testing
The desert racetrack
The 12 mile (19km) desert racetrack has been prepared by 317 members of the local Mier community. They have moved 16,500 tonnes of rock from 22 million square metres of dry lakebed, the largest area of land ever cleared by hand for a motorsport event, testimony to the partnership forged between the Bloodhound Team, the local community and the Northern Cape Government.
Ian Warhurst explains: “The section of the track we’ll use is 16km [10 miles] by 500m, with large safety areas on both sides. This allows us to lay out up to 12 individual tracks side by side. This is important as we can’t run over the same piece of ground twice because the car will break upthe baked mud surface as it passes. We need multiple tracks so we can build speedslowly and safely – going up in 50mph (80km/h) steps, comparing real-world results withtheoretical data – and Hakskeenpan is the perfect place to do this.
“The surface is hard, too, which means we’ve been able to design slightly narrower wheels that reduce aerodynamic drag. The desert surface also has a slight degree of ‘give’, which will work with the suspension to give a smoother ride, reducing vibration inside the car.”
The engine
The high-speed testing will be conducted using the car’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, normally found in a Eurofighter Typhoon. These engines produce a peak thrust of 20,000lbs (90 kilonewtons), equivalent to 54,000 thrust hp, or the combined output of 360 family cars.
Desert wheels
Bloodhound’s solid aluminium wheels have been specially designed for the desert surface. Measuring 900mm in diameter and weighing 95kg each, they are designed to spin at up to 10,200rpm (revolutions per minute) – more than four times faster than wheels on a Formula 1 car at top speed. The result of 30 years of research and design, they were created by an international consortium and forged from one of the highest aircraft grade aluminium alloys in the world: 7037.
The wheels have a V-shaped keel which digs into the alkali playa (baked mud) surface by 25mm when the car is stationary. As speeds increase, the wheels will rise up out of the mud surface and plane in much the same way as a speedboat rides up on the surface of the water. At 500mph (804km/h) and above, just a few millimetres of metal will be in contact with the desert surface, and the giant aluminium discs will act more like rudders than the wheels on a conventional car.
