Moose, a little insight from someone who came close to trying with a viable effort and had to pack it in. (for those who do not know, I was program manager and chief engineer of the Fossett LSR).
The absolute LSR (Steve called it the ALSR, some took exception and thought it should be the ULSR; the term "Unlimited" is applied to several other classes of wheel driven vehicles, so "Absolute" makes more sense), is a rarely pursued record. More people have died attempting it than have held it, although this includes a lot of pre-war fatalities.
First, understand that most people on this board are interested in the ALSR, it just doesn't dominate their overall LSR experience. IM<HO, the lack of direct interest from the wheel-driven LSR participants is a lack of relativity. Wheel driven LSR uses subsonic aerodynamics, and is dominated by the need for downforce to create traction and internal combustion power to match this traction. Distance vs. speed is long and acceleration and deceleration are slow relative to the ALSR. Most wheel-driven LSR is on the salt of Bonneville, which is a variable surface whose characteristics dominate the design of the vehicles. Combined with the fact that many people here can, and do, build their own LSR vehicles on minimal budgets and race for no recognition other than personal satisfaction and you can see how disconnected the niche of the ALSR is to them.
The ALSR is different. It is dominated, even conceptually, by supersonic aerodynamics, the need for stability over downforce, and truly obscene speeds leading to far higher acceleration and deceleration levels than most drivers would be comfortable with. There is no such thing as a survivable crash at speeds of 600+ mph let alone 1000. Everything, wheels, tires, bearings, structures, aerodynamics, engine types, systems, etc. etc. etc. relates only slightly to wheel-driven LSR. There are many racers and fabricators in wheel-driven LSR that are smart enough to be rocket scientists in the ALSR if they spent their lives on it and not on WD-LSR.
And that's one of the rubs. It takes TIME (far more than money) to learn things. Most of the people that post on these boards have spent their lives on WD-LSR and many are really good at it. Unfortunately, this doesn't make them good at ALSR technology. They are interested, it's just not what they do.
The second rub is harder. Again, IM<HO, the ALSR is a "Catch-22": Those who know what questions to ask and how to solve them are not going to do it and those that want to do it don't know what questions to ask let alone how to answer them. This is not to put down anyone currently trying to break the ALSR from Noble, to Schadle, to McGlashen, to Stakes, or even me. I do not have any credibility (other than the established supersonic air vehicle design database) to stand on a soapbox and proclaim myself the omniscient judge of all things ALSR. If anyone does in this sport, it would be Noble. Although I don't agree with his last two record breakers and his current design- he set the last two records. QED, he knows what he is doing. I do have strong opinions about how it should be done, referenced to the existing design database, and I am critical of efforts that ignore this.