The Bloodhound SSC project has achieved land speeds of 1,010km/h – making it the sixth-fastest land vehicle ever.

This speed was achieved in just 50 seconds at the Hakskeen Pan dry bed race track in South Africa.

Notably, it was reached using only the vehicle’s EJ200 jet engine – with significantly faster speeds expected once the team attaches a rocket to the device to supplement the engine.

With this additional power, those running the project hope that the vehicle will reach 1,287km/h (800 miles per hour), which would break the land speed world record.

Financial woes

The Bloodhound project has struggled financially recently, and was reported as being cancelled by the BBC in December 2018.

The project was reported to have failed to raise the required $32-million investment it needed to continue operations.

However, the project was purchased by Grafton LSR CEO Ian Warhurst, who assembled a new Bloodhound LSR team to complete the Bloodhound vehicle.

“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,” said Warhurst in March.

“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.”

Watch the Bloodhound SSC reach a top speed of 1,010km/h below.

﻿

Now read: AI cameras used to catch drivers with phones