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I’m hanging upside down by my ankles, much like a fruit bat, with an iPad in my hands. It displays a driver’s eye view from the cockpit of Bloodhound SSC, out through a narrow slot of windscreen as an endless desert rushes under the wheels. Blood floods to my head and the veins in my temples become purple and wormy. When I tilt the pad to the left – effectively it’s my steering wheel – the car veers to the right. Tilt it right and it goes to the left. Weird. Somebody shakes me and the screen goes fuzzy. Suddenly I’m flipped upright and something escapes from my nose and onto my shirt.
I’ve just broken the sound barrier. Virtually, at least. Because, while I might feel lightheaded and discombobulated, all of this is actually happening in a warehouse at the scrubby end of Bristol. Don’t worry, I’ve not been kidnapped. I’m doing this voluntarily, to gain a small insight into what Andy Green may experience when he attempts to drive Bloodhound for real – at 1,000mph – at the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa in 2016. Of course, he won’t be hanging upside down or expelling little green things through his nose, but with all the g force, he’ll feel like he is.
brightcove.createExperiences(); He will also feel as if a hurricane-force wind is being funnelled directly into his ear. Not only because Bloodhound pierces the air at supersonic speed, but also because that air must be slowed to a subsonic 550mph before entering the engine, to avoid blowing it up. This deceleration and subsequent shockwaves occur above his head on the roof of his canopy. And although he’ll be wearing a helmet and earplugs, the sound will still be terrifying. I’m played a simulation through a giant speaker stack, of the sort preferred by deaf rockers. It rumbles the ground and hits you right in the chest.
Here's the time we delivered the Bloodhound's 1000mph wheels to the factory
You’ll know the Bloodhound basics by now: jet engine (from a Eurofighter) plus large rocket (hotter than a volcano) plus F1 engine (used solely as a fuel pump) equals 135,000bhp and one thousand miles per hour. For the last seven years it has existed mostly in the minds of engineers and in renderings on computers. More recently it has started to take shape on a factory floor. As it edges closer to completion, new bits arrive at the back door of the warehouse every day, from 250 suppliers around the world. Only one per cent of parts are rejected, which means assembly has been swift, and last week they attached the carbon fibre monocoque – the cockpit – to the front end.
Written By:- Dan Read
More of this article on the Top gear website
