Bad news for the 1,000mph car as Bloodhound SSC is shut down

Artist’s rendering of a rocket car screaming across the desert. (credit: Bloodhound SSC)

Sad news, everyone. Bloodhound SSC, the British project to shatter the land speed record, is dead. Breaking the 1,000mph barrier with a ground vehicle is neither an easy feat nor a cheap one, and it was the funding side of things that proved to be an insurmountable hurdle.

This was not entirely unexpected news. In October, we reported that the project had entered administration, which is the UK counterpart to bankruptcy, due to a lack of funds. Six weeks later, the administrators have been unable to find anyone able to raise the $31 million (£25 million) necessary to take this extraordinary vehicle out to the specially prepared stretch of the Hakskeenpan in South Africa to begin building up to speed.

Rocket engine jet engine rocket engine jet engine

We first met Bloodhound SSC back in 2014. It was the brainchild of Richard Noble, who set a new land speed record in 1982 with Thrust 2 before spearheading the Thrust SSC program, which broke the sound barrier on land with RAF Wing Commander Andy Green behind the wheel in 1997.