Relocated and repainted, and with a fresh source of funding, the UK attempt to take the land speed record past 1000mph is back in business.
The familiar blue and orange livery is gone, and the “doghouse” headquarters near the Bristol docks is no more, but team Bloodhound is once again preparing to visit the South African desert to break records. Now owned by Ian Warhurst, the founder and managing director of Barnsley-based automotive turbocharger manufacturer Melett, who is now Chief Executive of a new holding company called Grafton LSR Ltd, the project’s headquarters has relocated to the University technical centre in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. The car is now red and white, which is expected to soon be joined by sponsors’ logos, and the core of the previous team has transferred over to the new organisation. The STEM outreach and education aspects of the programme will also be carried over to the new organisation.

Bloodhound’s driver, RAF Wing Commander Andy Green, and chief engineer Mark Chapman are on board with Warhurst, as is speed record-specialising aerodynamicist Ron Ayers, who worked on Bloodhound’s predecessors, Thrust SSC and Thrust 2, both LSR holders in their time. Also unchanged are the team’s intentions: following operational and logistics planning, it plans to take the car to Hakskeen Pan, a dry lake bed in South Africa, for high speed tests and then an attempt to break the current land speed record, 1227.985 km/h (763.035 mph), which was set by Andy Green in Thrust SSC in 1997. The team will return to headquarters to review the data gathered during high-speed testing and the record runs, undergo any necessary engineering and then go back to South Africa to attempt to hit the 1600 km/h (1000 mph) mark.

What is different is the financial underpinning. Although Grafton is seeking sponsorship, it will no longer be completely dependent on this income stream. Warhurst will now act as a guaranteur, keeping the funding stream going if sponsorship reaches a bottleneck, which previously caused the project to go into hibernation and put its whole future in doubt.
Warhurst is a long-standing fan of the team, following Thrust SSC during its record-breaking attempts in Nevada and referring to Ron Ayers as his hero.
In an interview with the BBC, Warhurst said that his sons had become enthusiastic about the project after seeing the car at the Big Bang fair, and had jokingly suggested that he buy it last November when Andy Green announced it was up for sale. “My kids keep saying I should go and buy a fast car, and I like to joke that I went and bought the fastest,” he said.
Having just sold his business, Warhurst reasoned that he might be able to keep the assets together and stop the project being broken up, so found former chief executive Richard Noble’s contact details online, got his go-ahead to speak to the project administrators and found that he was just in time to stop the car being broken up for scrap. With its major component, an EJ200 jet engine from the Typhoon fighter program, being on loan from the Ministry of Defence, the car had to be broken up so the engine could be removed and returned. “The purchase was a bit seat of pants, and I didn’t know if it was a viable project; I knew I could buy the car, save it and put in a museum, but having looked at it we realised it was still commercially viable,” he told the BBC.
The old sponsorship deals lapsed when the previous company went into administration, he explained, and the new sponsorship would only have to cover the cost of taking the car to South Africa and running it. “We don’t have to pay for the car any more, it’s here.”


Some engineering still needs to be done on the car. The wheel fairings and some other body panels are currently not in place, some electronics need to be completed, the brakes switched from carbon to steel, the parachutes installed and the sensor network connected. It also does not yet have the rocket engine that will take it across the sound barrier in place, and following its first record runs the main engineering task will be to convert the car so that a more powerful rocket can be fitted. “It was a very hard fight to create the Bloodhound car, the largest STEM programme in the UK, the public engagement programme and the 1,000 man-year desert preparation,” commented Richard Noble. “Our weakness had always been finance and now after Administration, with Ian Warhurst the team finally has the financial support it needs to drive forward with confidence and achieve what we set out to do nearly 12 years ago.”
It’s my ambition to let Bloodhound off the leash see just how fast this car can go.
“Since buying Bloodhound from the administrators last December, the team and I have been overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm the public have shown for the project. Over the last decade, an incredible amount of hard graft has been invested in the project and it would be a tragedy to see it go to waste,” Warhurst said.
“Starting with a clean slate, it’s my ambition to let Bloodhound off the leash see just how fast this car can go. I’ve been reviewing the project and I’m confident there is a commercial business proposition to support it. I’ll provide robust financing to ensure there is cashflow to hit the high-speed testing deadlines we set ourselves.”
Excellent news. Really happy that this is staying in the UK.
Great and I’d love a go in it, maybe not at 1000 mph: tut tut, 447 m/s.
Wonder if they considered the once-proposed vectored thrust development to increase stability.
Forces me to wonder, when is a car a car and when does it become an aeroplane: is it just a matter of wings? This would certainly fly.
Basically yes. Cars are configured to maximise downforce, aeroplanes to maximise lift. LSR regulations stipulate more than three wheels for cars; three-wheelers are classed as motorbikes.
We owe Ian Warhurst a huge debt of gratitude. There are many ways to create engineers, scientists and technical people for the future and Bloodhound, and its engagement with the public, stands out as a very good one indeed.
Wonderful to see this project saved from destruction!! I wonder if Ian has considered the prospect of public funding as some other forms of racing have done and continue to do. Offer something for a modest $100 contribution; perhaps $500 would get your name on the car; larger amounts could be offered something else as a “thank you” for the support. Yes it would bring in some cash but more importantly, it would really get the public and future engineers involved in the project. Open up and broaden the young minds that are or can be the future of engineering world wide.
Anyway, I hope they achieve all they hope to accomplish and more – safely!
Thrust SSC allowed members of the public to buy jet fuel for the desert runs.
Great news! The adventure continues!
What happens to the existing Supporters Club? and the name on the tail scheme?
Good question, and one I was wondering myself.
The team tells me a new supporters’ club will be launched and previous members will be invited to re-register (GDPR means that membership can’t be carried over to the new organisation without permission). All names on the tail will be carried over to the new livery.
I only saw his name mentioned briefly; what is, if one exists at all, Richard Noble’s part in this now new venture?
Really hope this goes well. I wonder if our names will still be on body? Hate to disappoint my 11 year old who loved the mock up (I kept that quiet) and meeting Andy at Goodwood, be great to see this going.
Delighted to read of this ‘second-wind!’ Fellow bloggers might recall that I had the privilege of consulting for the individual/firm which towards the end of its programme aided Thrust SSC to complete its efforts. How sad that it needs ‘private’ sponsorship, rather than a National funding system, to advance projects of this type. We bail-out banks -too big to fail?- but seem unable to recognise the National Prestige that this type of International ‘standing’ develops.
Yes I hope they honour the names too as my son was so proud to know his name was going to be on the Bloodhound. He feels so duped and hurt now that his interest in the project has waned.
Please reassure him that if his name was there before, it will be again.
Well done “Engineer”. The best and most comprehensive article I have read about the renewal of the project. Great to hear that Ian Warhurst is keen to support the education programme and presumably those Ambassadors who have been so supportive of the car build, public events and the Education Programme itself. Finally, Ian has kindly agreed to retain the names on the fin. Those members of the public and schools that sponsored the car by paying for their names to be on the fin.
Since Bloodhound is now based in a University Technical College this should definitely inspire our youth into considering an engineering apprenticeship as an alternative route to obtaining a degree qualification. I imagine it will be on public display during Open Days.