Bloodhound SSC

As described in an earlier update the braking system consists of airbrakes (an earlier update), parachutes and diskbrakes.

Looking at the unveiled car the parachute packs can be seen either side of the EJ200 engine. I have added two boxes to the rear of the model to represent the parachute containers.

The real car is almost ready and will start testing next year with a Land Speed record attempt planned for 2017.

You can see a BBC report on the unveiling here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34341017

I'ved played with the bloodhound design and come up with a couple of variations.

1. Bloodhound Batmobile (Classic and Modern)

2. Bloodhoound Jurassic Park - out run any dinosaur

I thought I'd share a partial build on the Bloodhound, this shows the EJ200 engine set inside the smooth inlet duct and you can also see the cockpit detail. It is a fairly simple build, one reason for that is because the real car has a very simple, a sleek, pencil shape body, designed for one thing only and that's going as fast as possible in a straight line. If this set  came out in the Creator range its got a few interesting bits for the builder, the flag in the tail, the rear wheel arrangement and the need to change from an even to odd number of studs to attach the nose - the main body is six studs wide but the nose needs to be an odd number shrinking down from five to one stud wide at the tip. Hopefully a set that can be built without adult help and interesting enough for a young builder who wants a model of a 1000 mph car.

Click on image for a larger version

Thank you for your feedback, I have looked into redesigning the nose and have come up with a design which is closer to the actual vehicle and still lets me get features such as the fins in. The driver also gets a better view :). Incidentally the nose cone is a minifigure fez piece-'cos fezes are cool'(Dr Who)

Click on image to see the full picture.

The land speed record is measured in two directions over a mile long section of the track. Both runs have to be completed within an hour. Ideally the car should stop in the same distance it needs to accelerate into the measured mile (approx 4.5 miles). You save a lot of time if you can just turn the car around and not have to tow it miles back to the second start line before you can prepare it for the second run.

The car has parachutes and wheel brakes but you can not use them at 1000 mph. 600mph for the parachutes and 250mph for the wheel brakes. The car has to start slowing down using only its drag. Unfortunately the car is designed to have as little drag as possible to go as fast as it can. To increase its drag the car is fitted with air brakes. These are kept flat against the sides of the car for the run and then deployed.

There is a much more detailed description about the car's braking system (and the other systems) on the Bloodhound SSC website.

I've added some doors to the sides which can be pulled open to simulate the airbrakes. When closed there is very little difference to the side of the model - you get a hinge line and a small handle.