I'm not sure how many of you have already seen this article from Popular Mechanics, but ... 1000 MPH or Bust: Behind the Scenes With Supersonic Car Tech From that article: 1000 MPH? That's so fast it makes me wonder if any of the land speed record courses even have room to safely accommodate a car capable of that sort of speed. But in any case, WOW!
I think "Safely" is a relative term when talking about driving at 1000. Finding a place to run it is a big part of the program. Hopefully they have room at Black Rock.
shmoozo ... Okay ... I'll bite ... what does the Bloodhound thrust driven SSC have to do with Traditional Hot Rods & Customs? Don't get me wrong, you'll probably find no bigger fan of Land Speed Racing on the HAMB than me ... and I applaud these Brits for striving for the 1000mph mark ... but maybe this thread should be moved to the Landspeed Addicts social group (click HERE). IMHO, pretty much all wheel-driven LSR vehicles are fair game for the HAMB main boards ... and even though several jet/rocket cars were running at Bonneville in the early '60s, I don't consider them "Traditional" Hot Rods. ... Let the stoning commence
I think that the all out pursuit of speed using all of the innovations available at ones disposal is the core root of Hot Roding. I see no conflict here.
what is the fastest wheel driven vehicle, i see this project as a really low flying plane, so low the the wheels/landing gear is still resting on the ground enough to say it is on the ground, maybe there should be a requirement to have load cells at each wheel to check? i think a Canadian dream would be to have an Avro Arrow without wings powered by two Iroquois engines.
Yeah, it seems to me that the word "safely" in this context has more to do with the possible effects that car could have on the people and objects outside of the car than on the person in it, which is not to say that the safety of the person in it isn't a huge consideration. It's just that anything that big traveling at anywhere close to that sort of speed is capable of doing a frightful amount of damage to pretty much anything or anybody it might hit. Keep in mind that 1000 MPH is close to 1500 feet per second. That's quite literally as fast as a speeding bullet, and needless to say this thing is going to weigh a whole heck of a lot more than a bullet!
That was the conclusion I came to after I pondered it for a while before posting the message. I remember growing up during the era when names like Art Afrons and Craig Breedlove were household names. As kids some of us (those of us in the know ) looked up to them in the same way we looked up to the astronauts, and that's some pretty high praise. Anybody who grew up during that same era probably knows exactly what I mean. The Arfons brothers were certainly hot rodders. They just took it to an extreme that most of use can only dream of. And this thing is really just a far more sophisticated version of the cars he was running on the salt flats in the mid-1960s. Well ... sort of. Anyway, my view is that any car that is built for the sole purpose of going faster on wheels than anybody has ever gone is a hot rod of one sort or another. It may not have a flathead or be built the way they built them 60 years ago, but tell me you'd pack up your stuff and leave the dry lake in disgust muttering, "That's not a hot rod," if you saw somebody unloading something like that from a trailer. I know I wouldn't ... though I might move back a few miles from the course while they were running it.
Actually, you may have a valid point there, and I certainly wouldn't kick up any dust if the mods did that. (I'm new here and I'm still trying to figure out the boundaries and stuff.) Heh! I wouldn't stone a guy for voicing a rational opinion, especially when he appears to have a valid point. I'd actually be more inclined to offer him a cold one ... if he wasn't about 3000 miles past the end of my driveway, that is.
shmoozo & MichaelDorman ... I never said it wasn't a Hot Rod ... just that it wasn't a "Traditional" Hot Rod ... I was only suggesting that this thread might be a bit O/T for the H.A.M.B. (a forum dedicated to spreading the gospel of Traditional Hot Rods & Customs). I'm by no means a member of the so-called HAMB "Trad-Police" ... but I know (from past personal experience) that these types of threads get closed and/or deleted ... a couple of years ago, I posted some pics of an Arfons’ Green Monster inspired jet powered 2-wheeled streamliner ... long story short, my post (and several replies to it) were deleted from the thread ... a similar thing occurred when someone posted info & pics of Breedlove's latest "Spirit of America" SSC (which had been purchased by the late Steve Fossett). Then again, perhaps the HAMB is a gentler / kinder place now ... 'cuz no one complained about my posts in FADED's "the blue flame" bonneville car thread from last year ... maybe it was because I prefaced one of my posts with "IMHO, non-wheel driven LSR cars are kinda O/T for the H.A.M.B.". How 'bout the 3 of us meet up with the Bloodhound SSC @ Black Rock (or whatever venue the team uses) in 2011 or 2012 ... I'll bring the cold ones!
"Thats not HAMB material!!" lol. anyway to answer your wondering: no, they cannot run it on normal courses. they arent even going to bonneville. I don't remember where they are takin though.
NASA thread went on forever, and guys actually got mad about it's suitability... This seems much more better.
Doc, You're correct, although our lake has two problems for a LSR attempt. The distance from humanity {logistics}and the condition of the salt. Most of the year Lake Gairdner is under water or the heat is just too much. Attempting something on this scale is not done in a weekend. There was word Andy Green has his eye on this site, even coming downunder for some study of the place.
Those smaller than usual wheels for such a fast car, are sure going to be spinning pretty fast. There has been some talk letely about the salt flat on the other side of the mountain from the current race course. Apparently it is much larger, and with thicker salt but no access at the present time. Since Mike Cook is involved in this, stay tuned. Mike gets things done.
One thousand miles per hour. ONE THOUSAND MILES PER HOUR. If I say it a hundred times it still does not sink in! And the one ant said to the other...hey,..... SPLAT.....watch out for that...nevermind.
kurtis ... I agree that the ~150 kilometer (~93 mile) dirt road from Port Augusta to Lake Gairdner is a bit of a logistics issue ... but enduring 2+ hours of dirt roads to reach the salt is probably one of the smallest hurdles for the Bloodhound SSC team to overcome ... there's that whole breaking the "1000mph barrier thingy" to worry about Here's a few pics of the dirt road to Lake Gairdner [from the Dry Lakes Racers Australia (DLRA) website (http://www.dlra.org.au)]: This is the road for the last two hours in. On the last leg in. First sight of the salt.
Andy Green also holds the absolute land speed record with Thrust SSC,763.035. The latest Hot Rod issue has a picture of Andy, and his wife who was driving a rather exotic Honda,I believe, to pick up her racing papers.
There has been another update. BBC: Design fixed for 1,000mph car From that article: and So apparently the design has been finalized (more or less) and the location for the runs will be a dry lake in South Africa. And there is also this article from a South African motorsports web site: SA dry lake chosen for 1000mph record bid From that article: also That'll give ya a serious kick on the back.
1000 mph on wheels I hope they can do it. But thats one hell of a goal. Found this picture online. Big jump from 600 to 1000
Just contemplate that quote for a moment ... to Andy Green, "slow-to medium speeds" are in the 100 to 500 MPH range!!!
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