The temptation is to dismiss it as a pipe dream. A car achieving 1600km/h on land is in the realms of Superman comics and alien invasion movies.
Consider that at this speed the car's covering one kilometre in less than four seconds, and would take three and a half minutes to drive the 54km from Joburg to Pretoria. That's like, even faster than the Gautrain.
If all goes well Bloodhound SSC will accelerate to around 1609km/h and back to zero in just one minute and forty seconds. The Northern Cape's Hakskeen Pan dry-lake bed was chosen as the best location out of a possible 20 000 potential sites because of its ideal surface. The event is supported by the Northern Cape government, and some volunteers from the local community have already started preparing the track for the first runs in 2013.
The series of five lectures are based on the 50th anniversary of the John Orr Memorial Lecture, run by The SA Institution of Mechanical Engineering (SAIMechE). SA's longest-running science event, the lectures have been staged since 1961 and commemorate Prof John Orr, a distinguished engineer.
Visit the Star Motoring for the full article, as well as other related articles around Andy's visit to SA for the SAIMechE John Orr Lecture tour:
Email to a Friend