Bloodhound team plans 500mph desert runs for 2018

The potential land speed record-breaking Bloodhound car will run in the South African desert for the first time in 2018. The project announced the plans for next autumn following successful public tests in Cornwall, in October. Driver and current land speed record holder Andy Green will attempt to reach 500mph (800km/h) on the dry lake bed racetrack in Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, up from a previous maximum of just over 200mph (320km/h) in the UK. The Bloodhound 500 trials will be a key test of the car’s performance and handling ahead of plans to break the current speed record of 763mph (1,228km/h). The team is on track for potential 1,000mph+ (1,600km/h) runs in 2019, a spokesman told Professional Engineering. The event will be “a key milestone on theroute to setting a 1,000mph record,” said Green, who claimed the current record in the Thrust SSC 20 years ago. “Building on everything we learned in Newquay this October, we’ll learn a tremendous amount by going fast on the desert the car was designed to run on.”