Bloodhound testing

[7707]

The point is that comparing Bloodhound's alleged peak speed to 4 absolute world land speed record holders is not just misleading, but minimizes their record achievements. It is the same thing as a 100 meter sprinter claiming he is faster than a 1,000 meter middle distance runner. The media and the public don't understand these issues. It is irresponsible for a legitimate record contender to promote a dubious achievement as fact.

Exactly. The PR machine was in full spin mode.

[Stainless1]

Well I guess we will all watch as they try to raise the cash to continue. 
I would have liked a throttle position on that graph.  They were just speed testing like the NAE had been doing for years.  So without knowing throttle, how can anyone say that is close to their max.
It seemed to be a little squirrelly as I mentioned earlier, but maybe Andy was over correcting... his last ride was rear steering... is this one fly by wire or mechanically connected...
Hey the media claims are for the public... building project support... they all do it these days...

[MAYOMAN]

Stainless - "the media claims are for the public"! That is my point. Fake news does not inform the public - it deceives the public. I will now be very skeptical of any claims from the Bloodhound crowd. If it ain't FIA, it ain't real!

[Peter Jack]

My take is that the numbers that they release aren't and can't be taken as record setting numbers. What they do accomplish is give a relative performance reading as opposed to new or previous runs. This makes it easy to see if they are making performance gains or spinning their wheels so to speak. They can't be taken as anything more.

Pete

[TrickyDicky]

... maybe Andy was over correcting... his last ride was rear steering...

Pedants corner: AFAIK, Andy's last ride (setting an independently-timed, FIA-recognised record) was steered by the front wheels.

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It was also powered by two diesel engines. 

Someone will probably out-pedant me now by pointing to some other vehicle that Andy Green has driven at Bonneville since 2006.

[MAYOMAN]

They should not be bragging against the absolute world record holders.

A better press release could have read:
In our dynamic tests at progressively increasing speeds, Bloodhound?s on-board instrumentation briefly indicated an unofficial peak speed of 628 miles per hour. This confirms our design calculations for this phase of the Bloodhound?s development.

That would be real news.

[TrickyDicky]

They should not be bragging against the absolute world record holders.

A better press release could have read:
In our dynamic tests at progressively increasing speeds, Bloodhound?s on-board instrumentation briefly indicated an unofficial peak speed of 628 miles per hour. This confirms our design calculations for this phase of the Bloodhound?s development.

That would be real news.

Where is the press release in which they compare Bloodhound's performance with holders of the absolute record?  I cannot find anything like that on their web site.

Mind you, when they (as essentially the same team) are the current record holder I can forgive them giving a commentary on how they compare with themselves, so to speak.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Andy was on the salt to drive the rebuilt Mormon Meteor after the JCB diesel, I believe.  I was there for both of those. . .

[MAYOMAN]

Tricky Dicky - The BBC press article began...
Bloodhound has now joined the exclusive club of land speed racers that have gone faster than 600mph (965km/h).
Running across its dry lakebed track on Saturday, the British car's GPS sensors clocked 628mph (1,010km/h).
Only seven vehicles in the history of the land speed record have previously driven beyond 600mph.

Again, only FOUR have been correctly timed over 600 mph - and they did it over the mile/kilometer in two directions and independently timed (FIA).

[tauruck]

Did they get the design from the hydro boats??
The intake looks the same. I saw the video that was on our national TV last night and that contraption was all over the shop.
Seriously guys. I don't think they'll be back.

[TrickyDicky]

...
I saw the video that was on our national TV last night and that contraption was all over the shop.
Seriously guys. I don't think they'll be back.

In my not-so-humble opinion there are only two reasons why Bloodhound LSR might not return to South Africa.

• Lack of money.  Ian Warhurst has indicated that he is looking for one or more sponsors to fund the first record attempt.  If they don't materialise he may pull the plug.  Is he bluffing?
  
  
• Lack of a viable rocket.  This has long been the project's Achilles heel.  It's not clear that Nammo can (in a reasonable timeframe) provide something that Andy Green is willing to sit in front of.

Whether or not it looks dangerous now is verging on irrelevant.  One of the points of the high speed testing was to gather data to inform the engineers whether their computer modelling is accurate.  If it is not, or there is any other reason to doubt the safety of the design, the next 12 months or so will be used to redesign parts of the car to ensure that it remains adequately safe in the 600-800mph speed range.

On the faster runs Bloodhound is reportedly affected by cross winds, but not in any way that Andy found difficult to control.

[TrickyDicky]

Andy was on the salt to drive the rebuilt Mormon Meteor after the JCB diesel, I believe.  I was there for both of those. . .

Thanks for the information about Mormon Meteor, SSS. I wasn't aware of that. I'm guessing Andy was not going for a record on that occasion. 

[racefanwfo]

I thought that the new owner of bloodhound has more money then god. Why is he looking for more money to run the car. I believe that andy green was not a land speed racer before he drove thrust ssc. There are people on this forum that have been land speed racers a lot longer then andy green.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

These were taken when the MM and Andy Green were on the salt with the Mormon Meteor.  They were taken in 2008.

















And finally, Monte and Andy:

[TrickyDicky]

... I believe that andy green was not a land speed racer before he drove thrust ssc. ...

I think that is correct.  He won through a competitive selection process when Richard Noble decided not to drive ThrustSSC himself.

Pretty amazing that a raw novice was able to set a supersonic record on only the 65th and 66th runs of ThrustSSC.