10 am on Sunday 17th: the jet and rocket powered BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car will be on display on The Strand, Central London
With three engines, a 1,050 mph top speed, a turning circle of 120 m and forty five feet of flame shooting from its rocket exhaust, BLOODHOUND SSC is not exactly ideal for the daily commute. At over forty feet long and without rear-view mirrors (or a reverse gear), parking is tricky too.
And yet, on Sunday 17th October, at 10am, the world’s ultimate racing car will be stationed on London’s Strand for all to see, ahead of going on display at Coutts Bank.
One of the UK's leading private banks, Coutts & Co is known for championing art and fashion. From the 17th to the 30th of October it will be celebrating cutting edge research and development and the best of British engineering in the form of a full-size replica of BLOODHOUND SSC.
It may be faster than a bullet, but speed is not the car’s only raison d’etre; rather, it is the focal point of an education programme designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM subjects) by show-casing them in the most exciting way possible - by building a car capable of reaching 1,000 mph.
All the BLOODHOUND design and operational data is to be made available live on the web as the project develops, thus enabling tomorrow's scientists and engineers to follow the project progress in the finest technical detail.
Over 4000 UK schools have signed up to use BLOODHOUND curriculum-ready resources to bring their science and maths lessons to life, equating to over 1.5 million pupils. This number is expected to grow dramatically once the car is built.
“We are extremely grateful to Coutts for their generosity in allowing us to showcase BLOODHOUND in London” said Richard Noble, Project Director. “It’s a unique and extremely challenging project that is being followed in 203 countries. We have no way of knowing how Londoners will respond to all this, but given the terrific response BLOODHOUND SSC gets around the world, we hope they’ll want to join this adventure too.”
Michael Morley, Chief Executive, Coutts & Co said "It is a real privilege to have this phenomenal car in our headquarters in The Strand. It represents the best of British engineering and design and with the performance of a fast jet it is destined to become one of the most advanced technological projects of the first part of the 21st Century. BLOODHOUND is an example of entrepreneurial genius and will be an inspiration to the next generation of engineers and scientists".
The Show Car, which made its world debut earlier this summer at the Farnborough International Air Show, is the result of world-leading aerodynamic research, a three-year study of Computational Fluid Dynamics and ten exhaustive design evolutions to perfect the shape and aerodynamic package.
220 high-tech engineering companies across the UK are now starting work producing key components for the car while chassis construction begins in January 2011. Build will take approximately 12 months to complete prior to runway testing here in the UK. The team aim to be on the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape in South Africa to begin high speed runs by summer 2012.
The BLOODHOUND Project is entirely funded by corporate sponsorship and public donations. Already, more than 5000 people have donated £10 to have their name on the tail fin, directly helping to build Bloodhound and ensuring that will be part of history too.
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