Bloodhound on the track

The Bloodhound Land Speed Record project is a going concern again, the British Grafton Land Speed Record company said last week.

The company, led by CEO Ian Warhurst, will run the project from headquarters at SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College in the Gloucestershire Science and Technology Park.

The newly assembled Bloodhound LSR team will focus on completing development of the jet- and rocket-powered car and moving to the next phase of the programme – high-speed testing.

The new name, Bloodhound LSR, accompanies a complete rebranding of the programme. This includes a visual transformation of the car, which was revealed in striking red and white livery. Ian Warhurst said: “I am confident there is a commercial business proposition to support Bloodhound. I’ll provide robust financing to ensure there is cashflow to hit the high-speed testing deadlines we set ourselves.”

Warhurst is joined by driver and current world land speed record holder Andy Green, engineering director Mark Chapman, chief financial officer Rick Sturge, operations director Martyn Davidson, commercial director Ewen Honeyman, plus many of the original staff members.

Former Bloodhound CEO Richard Noble said: “Our weakness was always financed and now with Ian Warhurst, the team finally has the financial support it needs to achieve what we set out to do nearly 12 years ago.”

The current holder of the Outright World Land Speed Record is Thrust SSC, a twin jet-powered car which achieved 1 227.985km/h over one mile in 1997. Driven by Green, this was the first supersonic record as it broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.016 in the process.

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