The World Land Speed Record stands at a staggering 763mph, and was achieved by former RAF pilot Andy Green in 1997. Driving the Thrust SSC jet-propelled car, Green not only broke the fabled speed record, but became the first man to break the sound barrier in a land-going vehicle — impressive stuff given this all happened nearly twenty years ago.
763mph may sound impossibly quick, but records are there to be broken. At the moment several research teams across the globe are working on building a car that will trump the Thrust SSC, and with it the current World Land Speed Record.
But can anything really travel faster than 763mph on land? We’re here to find out by looking at the contenders for the land speed record.
Bloodhound SSC
Considered the main contender for the WLSR, Bloodhound SSC is a British supersonic land vehicle capable of hitting speeds of up to 1,050mph, or so its developers claim. If successful, the Bloodhound stands to smash the current record by 33%, the largest ever margin for a land speed record vehicle.
On paper the Bloodhound SSC certainly sounds impressive. The “car” (we use that term loosely) is powered by a jet engine and a rocket, the combination of which produces a cool 135,000 horsepower — that’s six times more power than all of the cars on an F1 starting grid put together.
And the incredible stats don’t stop there. According to Bloodhound’s designers, the car will hit 1,000mph in under a minute, covering the length of four and a half football pitches in a single second. To put this extreme speed into perspective, that’s faster than a bullet fired from a Magnum 357 handgun. Yikes.
On its official run, Andy Green, the same former RAF pilot who clinched the last World Land Speed Record, will drive the Bloodhound SSC. The car is currently under construction in Bristol, but there is no official date on when it will make its first attempt at the record.
North American Eagle
Not ones to sit back and watch us Brits take all the glory; the US is home to several land speed record teams, the closest contender of which is the North American Eagle. Built by two unassuming gents named Keith and Ed, the North American Eagle is the main rival of the Bloodhound SSC, and could be the first car to hit 1,000mph when it makes its run in the near future.
Unlike the Bloodhound SSC, which was commissioned by the UK’s Minister of Science, the North American Eagle has much humbler origins. The project began when Ed and Keith purchased the fuselage of an F-104A fighter jet from an aircraft scrapyard in Maine, with the aim to turn it into a supersonic racing machine. They removed the wings, gave it some wheels and stuck a 52,000 horsepower Specially Enhanced Engine to its rear — placing it among the fastest land vehicles in the world.
At idle, this 56-foot vehicle burns 150 litres of fuel per minute, rising to 336 litres per minute in full tilt afterburner mode. This makes it the least economical car in existence, so we’d be interested to know the road tax!
Testing of the North American Eagle is currently on going, but the car is expected to make its official run in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in the next 12 months.
Aussie Invader 5R
With all that barren open space, it’s not surprising that Australia is having a go at building a record-breaking land vehicle, too. The vehicle in question is the Aussie Invader 5R, a supersonic three-wheeler developed by the Aussie Invader team, who currently hold the Australian Land Speed Record. With a predicted top speed of 1,050mph, and 62,000lbs of thrust on tap, the 5R has the potential to smash the World Land Speed Record.
Weighing 9.2 tonnes and powered by a bi-propellant rocket motor, the Invader 5R develops more horsepower than any land car on Earth (200,000hp to be exact). At full throttle, the car is capable of smashing the land speed record, the sound barrier and the top speed for a low altitude aircraft — and all while skimming across the surface of the snake-strewn Aussie outback. Crikey.
The Aussie Invader 5R is the brainchild of Rosco McGlashan, who piloted the Aussie Invader III into the Australian land speed history books in 1995. It’s not yet known if McGlashan will pilot the 5R when it makes its official run, but given he’s just turned sixty, we think he might have hung up his helmet and handed the reins of this 1,000mph monster to a younger driver.
With all three of these supersonic vehicles drawing ever nearer to their official run date, the 763mph record looks set to be shattered in the near future. The question is, which team will be the first to top the 1,000mph mark?
If you’re as passionate about power and performance as we are, why not check out our Goodwood Festival of Speed competition? With just a couple of weeks to go until this famous car show, we’re giving one lucky Prestone fan the chance to win an exhilarating track day experience. For more information and to enter, visit the competition page.
While we can’t guarantee our products would work at 1,000mph, they’ll never let you down on the open road. To find out what makes Prestone products so special, visit our homepage.
Image credits: Flickr Creative Commons: Eddie, Wikimedia Creative Commons, Aussie Invader Media Center