A project to break the world land-speed record in a supersonic car is under threat again, the owner of the vehicle has said.
Bloodhound LSR, a Bristol-built car that’s aiming to reach speeds of more than 800mph (1,290km/h), needs to secure more funding by the end of March.
The money would be used to reform the team of aerospace and motorsport experts and complete development of the car, which has already done a number of trial runs on a dried-out lake bed in the Kalahari Desert.
In order to break the world land-speed record the car needs a rocket, which will be provided by Norwegian rocket specialist Nammo, in addition to its EJ200 Rolls-Royce jet engine.
Ian Warhurst, Bloodhound’s owner and chief executive, said: “The clock is ticking to raise the necessary investment to re-group the team and crack on with the rocket programme and other car upgrades in time to hit our 2021 deadlines.
“If we miss our cool weather window in July and August, temperatures in the Kalahari will make running a rocket untenable next year.”
It is not the first time the project has fallen into difficulty.
Mr Warhurst bought Bloodhound out of administration in 2018 and reopened its headquarters in Gloucestershire.
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But his plan was only to fund the rescue - and he now says around £8million in funding from individuals and businesses is needed to keep the project afloat.
He explained: “The project remains dormant whilst we try to secure the funding but at a cost of tens of thousands per month of overheads, and the threat that we miss the weather window next year, we cannot remain dormant for long.
“After all that this project has achieved in the past year to prove its viability, it would be devastating to end here when we are so close. We remain optimistic but really are running out of time.”
Mr Warhurst says the public's interest in Bloodhound has been “immense” and claims independent analysis of the media coverage has showed sponsors involved in the South African trials could have received a 14:1 return on their investment.
The car, which has already reached a top speed of 628mph in the Kalahari Desert, has currently been split apart for cleaning, inspection and maintenance, and the engine removed and returned to Rolls-Royce for storage.