New Bid For Land Speed Record

[lightweight]

http://www.autocarmagazine.co.uk/new...p?na_id=222809

Famous aviator Steve Fossett has announced plans to pick up Craig Breedlove's aborted efforts to break Thrust SSC's Land Speed Record.

Fossett, who holds around-the-world records for sailing and solo flights, is to use a modified version of Spirit of America 3, the car Breedlove hoped would take him beyond Andy Green's 763mph benchmark before an accident and mechanical problems intervened. The car is 47 feet long and uses a Phantom fighter-bomber engine producing over 45000bhp - just as well, given that Fossett's team is aiming not only to crack the speed of sound, but 800mph. The assault on the record will take place next year and will be based in Reno, Nevada, with attempts held on a dry lake bed in the nearby desert.

"This is surely the most dramatic of all world records," said Fossett, who has raced 200mph sports prototypes at Daytona and Le Mans. "It's the most famous record in world motorsport, with a fabulous history of great record holders. I'm very excited by the opportunity to meet this challenge.

"Why do I want to break the record? Think of the great names of the past - Campbell, Breedlove, Alfons, Noble. Think of magic milestones like 300mph, 400mph, 500mph, 600mph and the first supersonic record set nine years ago. Every car-crazy kid - and adult - knows this history. My objective is to push this record to 800mph and beyond. It's a great goal, and we have the car to achieve it."

[h00t_h00t]

Its been nine years already?

I feel old.

Anyway, how much power did SSC have, with two engines I assume its MORE than 45,000hp?

[lightweight]

The Thrust had two Rolls-Royce Spey 202s from the Phantom fighter, each producing 20,000 pounds of thrust. Richard Noble has acquired two of them, but also has two even more powerful 205 units (25,000lb of thrust) for use when ThrustSSC has proved itself in transonic testing.

http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/contents_frames.html

[blackcat77]

I followed that story on the web closely at the time and still have all the pictures I saved from their webpage. It's funny how tiny they all were but all most people -- including me -- at the time had was dialup, so I guess that was all they could do in a practical sense.

I also bought a diecast of their car, which I still have. It was about $60, but the extra money went to help cover the expense of the effort, so it was worth it.

[092326001]

i'm not that intrested as much
now most of them are powered by jet engines and their wheels don't do much anymore

it's lost its soul ans passion like lemans, one of things that made it great was the lemans starts.

[h00t_h00t]

How do you put on a 5-point harness while driving down the straight dodging slow runners and cars pulling out in front of you?

[HVAC25000]

He's upset because no one dies anymore. Gotta have death for it to be exciting, like Nascar.

[drakkie]

What shall i say.... Anyone fell asleep ?

http://www.landspeed.com/Default.asp

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by 092326001

it's lost its soul ans passion like lemans, one of things that made it great was the lemans starts.

Jacky Ickx proved that a slow walk to the car after all cars were gone still was fast enough to win Le Mans.