Campaign needed to keep Bloodhound in Bristol

Bloodhound SSC is a Bristol project through and through however, despite it being designed and built in the city, the supersonic car could end up being sold to the highest bidder and leave the city for good.

After next year’s final land speed record attempt in South Africa the car will be sold and, unless millions are raised to keep it in Bristol, it is likely that it will end up at the Coventry Transport Museum, which already owns the two previous land speed record holding cars, Thrust and Thrust SSC.

The design and development of the car has been funded by sponsorship and donations and Bloodhound need to sell it to recoup some costs. Bloodhound estimates that it will fetch between £2.5 and £4m and say Coventry Transport Museum, which has the largest publicly owned collection of cars in the world, has already expressed a “keen” interest in acquiring the car.

The car is being built at Bloodhound HQ in Avonmouth and lead engineer Mark Elvin said: “The people of Bristol, when they see this car careering down the desert at 1000mph on its final runs, to be able to say that was built on my doorstep it’s something we should be immensely proud of.

“I think it will be a terrible shame that it is probably not going to end up in the MShed. I’d love it to stay in Bristol because I would go and visit it every weekend.”

Bloodhound’s head of sponsorship Tony Parraman is calling on the people of Bristol to get behind the Bloodhound project before it is too late: “I would love it if the people of Bristol would take some ownership of the project and back it. This is a massive opportunity for Bristol to spread its wings internationally and, if it doesn’t do it, it will be a sad day for Bristol.”

But of course money is the only thing which will secure the Bloodhound and keep it in Bristol. Mayor George Ferguson said he would love to see the car standing beside another Bristol engineering legend Concorde at the new aviation museum in Filton however, “the price tag attached to buying and retaining the car in the city region would be prohibitive for a public body”.

He added that he is “very keen to see it staying here after a safe return from South Africa” and is “absolutely open to discussions with Bloodhound about other ways the city can help facilitate a fitting display place”.

Lloyd Burnell from the Bristol Aero Collection which is developing the new Filton museum said “whilst the idea of the supersonic car being presented with Concorde is interesting, this would only be possible if it were gifted”.

He added: “As we still have a funding gap to finance the Bristol Aerospace Centre (and home for Concorde) which is due to open in 2017, housing of Bloodhound would need to be a consideration for our second phase of our development.”

The question is if the supersonic car will hang round in Bristol long enough for that to happen.

Picture credit: Stefan Marjoram