News / Science
Bloodhound back on track with new sponsorship
Attempts to break the world land-speed record have been reignited after Bristol engineers secured a major new sponsor.
The team behind Bloodhound SSC, a supersonic car which is being put together in Avonmouth, has partnered with Geely, a Chinese auto group which has kickstarted investment and cleared debts.
The move means Geely becomes the lead sponsor as the Bloodhound team enters the closing stages of building the world’s fastest car.
is needed now More than ever
The aim is to break the longstanding land-speed world record in October 2017, set at around 763mph, and then break the 1,000-mile-per-hour barrier one year later.
The project began eight years ago, with other lead partners on board including Rolex and Rolls Royce. But engineers had to put brakes on their plans as they awaited more financial backing.
At Geely’s unveiling in Avonmouth, the Bloodhound team said a “special relationship” had developed between the partners. Geely, which owns Volvo, has 20,000 employees and was noted as a “partner who truly shares” Bloodhound’s “goals and ambition”.
At present, Bloodhound expects to run their car at 800mph by the end of 2017, before then breaking past 1,000mph in 2018. This would go far beyond the existing world record, and even the track that the car will be driven on has taken seven years to build so far.
The track is in South Africa, although test runs will be completed closer to home in Cornwall.
Bloodhound project director, Richard Noble, said: “We could not have a better partner than Geely: not only are they an international technology company with tremendous vision and capability, they share our passion for innovation and education.
“Their support, both technical and financial, means we can now plan next year’s record-breaking challenge with confidence. It also means we can take our STEM inspiration message to a vast new audience, which is great for science and engineering but also for promoting Great Britain.”
Andy Green, a fighter pilot, will drive the final model of the car – but there remains work to do. It is thought that the project is somewhere between 85-90 per cent of the way towards completion, while finance towards the project is still only at around 70 per cent of its target.
Read more: The Bristol brains behind the Bloodhound
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