Bloodhound hits 334mph as speed testing ramps up

The Bloodhound land speed record attempt car has recorded a top speed of 334mph, its fastest yet, during testing in South Africa.

The brains behind the British engineering project have been completing a series of ‘run profiles’ as part of the high-speed testing phase, ramping up ahead of the ultimate goal of 1,050mph.

This third run profile involved driving the car towards a target of 350mph, using the jet engine’s afterburner for the first time. Over the next four weeks, speeds will be increased in increments of 50mph until it hits 500mph.

Bloodhound driver and current World Land Speed Record holder Andy Green said: “We’ve had two very successful runs today, with the second run reaching a max speed of 334 mph – going from 50mph to 300mph in 13 seconds.

“There was strong cross wind gusting at over 15mph, and we’ve established that this is pretty much the limit for running in the car. We’re happy because this was a successful test, now we’re ready to progress on to higher speeds.”

Testing hasn’t been without its difficulties, though. When the team arrived on October 21, they couldn’t get the jet engine to fire up, eventually diagnosing a faulty fuel sensor, while issues with the start-up control unit arose too, which struggled with the heat and altitude.

Bloodhound is targeting two land speed record attempts at Hakskeenpan in South Africa. First, it hopes to beat the existing record of 763.035mph set by Thrust SSC in 1997, before analysing the data to learn how it can safely make an attempt to break 1,000mph.

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