Bristol-built supersonic car Bloodhound will be tested at high speed for the first time in South Africa in October.
The Bloodhound Land Speed Record project now has the money to trial the vehicle at speeds of 500mph (800km/h).
The car will be run on a dry lake-bed race track at Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, and will enable the team to test the live video stream at high speed, in preparation for the land-speed record attempt in 2020.
Bloodhound is aiming to break the sound barrier and beat the existing land-speed record of 763mph (1,228km/h).
Technology will enable the team to capture data from hundreds of sensors in real time to allow budding engineers to see exactly how the car is behaving as it dices with physics.
The project was relaunched in March this year, under the new ownership of Ian Warhurst, chief executive of Grafton LSR.
Since relaunching, the team has been to a remote corner of the Kalahari Desert and converted the car from its runway design to high-speed testing spec.
This has included adding the parachute braking system, uprating springs and dampers, adding more air pressure and load sensors, and a fire detection and suppression system.
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This phase of the Bloodhound LSR project will be funded through sponsorship and partnerships, with cash flow supported by Mr Warhurst.
He said: “This world land speed record campaign is unlike any other, with the opportunities opened up by digital technology.
"We’re running the car on a brand new surface. The wheels have been designed specifically for this desert lake bed, but it will still be vital to test them at high speeds before making record speed runs.”
What will high-speed testing do?
High-speed testing using the car’s Rolls-Royce jet engine will check the car’s performance and handling during one of its most vulnerable phases - between 300 and 500mph - where the stability of the car transitions from being governed by the interaction of the wheels with the desert surface to being controlled by the vehicle’s aerodynamics.
The grip from the wheels will fall off faster than the aerodynamic forces build up, so it is likely to be the point where the car is least stable.
Bloodhound LSR will make up to 10 runs at these speeds during high-speed testing.
The high-speed test programme will also be a rehearsal for the record attempt, with the team using the time to develop its operational procedures, perfect its practices for desert working and test radio communications.
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The team will gather data on the interaction between the solid aluminium wheels, which will be used for the first time, and 'base drag', which relates to the aerodynamic force produced by low pressure at the rear of the car, sucking it back.
As the car approaches transonic speeds, this force far exceeds the friction of the air passing over Bloodhound’s bodywork.
Terabytes of information will be gathered by over 500 sensors and cameras built into the car during the high-speed tests.
This will be shared with academics at Swansea University where students will be invited to analyse the data ahead of the land-speed record attempt.
During low-speed trials in 2017, driver Andy Green, the current World Land Speed Record holder, drove the previously blue and orange liveried car from a standing start to 200mph in eight seconds.
He said: “High-speed testing is a key part of setting a new world land speed record. Building on everything we achieved in Newquay in 2017, we’ll learn a tremendous amount by going fast on the desert the car was designed to run on.
"This is where science meets reality and it all starts to get really exciting!”
The race track
The 12 mile desert racetrack has been prepared by 317 members of the local Mier community.
They have moved 16,500 tonnes of rock from 22 million square metres of dry lakebed, the largest area of land ever cleared by hand for a motorsport event.
“The section of the track we’ll use is 10 miles by 500m, with large safety areas on both sides," added Mr Warhurst.
"This allows us to lay out up to 12 individual tracks side by side. This is important as we can’t run over the same piece of ground twice because the car will break up the baked mud surface as it passes.
"We need multiple tracks so we can build speed slowly and safely – going up in 50mph (80km/h) steps, comparing real-world results with theoretical data – and Hakskeen Pan is the perfect place to do this.
“The surface is hard, too, which means we’ve been able to design slightly narrower wheels that reduce aerodynamic drag. The desert surface also has a slight degree of ‘give’, which will work with the suspension to give a smoother ride, reducing vibration inside the car.”