Engineers have unveiled designs for a rocket- and jet-powered car that they say could bust the land-speed record wide open, potentially traveling faster than 1,000 miles per hour. The vehicle, called the Bloodhound SSC, is being designed by the same team that built the first car to ever break the sound barrier, the Thrust SSC, which clocked in at 763 mph when it zoomed across Nevada’s Black Rock desert in 1997. That vehicle currently holds the land-speed record.
The 42-foot long Bloodhound will be powered by an “exotic combination” of jet, rocket, and piston-engine power…. From what we understand, the rocket’s charged mainly with propelling the car to high speeds. Though it’s good for that, it’s unable to hold selected speeds, hence the addition of a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine kicks in. The piston engine? We hear the 800-hp V-12 engine serves mostly as an auxiliary power source and a fuel pump [Automobile].
