Supersonic car. Thrust SSC.

[Flibb]

This thread could have lived in a variety of forums, but thought here might be best. Please move if you think it should live elsewhere.

Brief history of this British record breaker.

The initial design stage of building Thrust SSC started in 1992, after Richard Noble (the previous holder of the land speed record) asked Ron Ayers (a retired missile designer) if it was possible to build a car that could survive the shockwave created, when the sound barrier was broken. Ron Ayres agreed to do the initial design work, although he was pretty well convinced that a car was unbuildable at the time. Other teams were working on breaking the sound barrier but their designs mostly concentrated on light vehicles with a single jet engine, with a rocket to give extra speed if required. Rather than follow these ideas Thrust SSC was designed for high speed stability using 2 jet engines, rear wheel steering, and the final vehicle weighed in at 10 ton.

On October 16 1997 Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green became the first car to officially break the speed of sound. The car still holds the official land speed record at 763mph, and is the only car to have officially broken the speed of sound.

The project was also important for another reason, its reliance on the internet to get its message across to the public, and ask for their help and support. Now this was in the days before ADSL, many of us spent ages waiting for poor quality videos to download of the latest runs, or the not so live webcam images. At its height the Thrust SSC website was getting over 10 million hits a week, at the time it resoundingly beat any other website on the planet.

Why have I posted this? Well just watched the video of what a small bunch of people, without major sponsorship achieved when many others said it couldn’t be done. The risks involved in the project ranged from bankruptcy for Richard Noble, to the death of the driver.

If you are interested and have £3.50 (inc p&p) spare you can get the video including a model of the car from

HERE

Also keep your eyes open for the book, and the Thrust SSC website is still there and is well worth a look.

[Dorza]

Its strange you post this now, because last night there was a program on discovery science about the landspeed record. Start at the erm beginning and ending with the last record to be set (Thrust SSC). There is a team down under which wants to try and break SSC's record. Their car is lighter and more streamlined but only has half the power.

[shiato storm]

i have one of the little Thrust SSC models, and the box is signed by both the sponsor (Noble) and driver (Green) at the london motor show several years ago...
its not going near ebay...for quite some time

[Flibb]

Its suprising taht nobody has beaten the record yet, considering the advances in composite technology, especially the price of it. One of the bigest problems with these high speed cars is keeping them on the ground. After Thrust 2 had made its record breaking runs they subjected it to computerised serodinamic testing, this found that if they had increased its speed by 7mph it would have gone airborne and flipped, killing Richard Noble.

The maximum design speed of Thrust SSC was 850mph, after they broke the sound barrier they team stopped trying to go any faster due to the tole that hat been taken on the cars superstructure ans the lack of funds. Even at 500mph they had suffered a major suspension failure, due to the stability of the car it survived. On another high speed run the car hit a slight bump and left the ground for 50ft. The twin engine design of the car was very clever, it not only allowed the maxamum amount of air in to the engines, it also gave the best spread of weight, and a wide stable wheel platform.

Right im off to play with my arc welder nad find some government surplus jet engines. Just need some really big wheels and tyres, what about neon washer jets?

[XA04]

look's like something off starwars

[MD]

Its also sitting in the transport museum in Coventry right now, its free to visit you should go take a look, both Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC are there, makes a good day out tbh.

m@

[Rave]

had increased its speed by 7mph it would have gone airborne and flipped, killing Richard Noble.

You mean possibly killing him. The wheel bearing on the Green Monster broke up at about 600mph and Art Arfons survived the crash. Craig Breedlove was doing over 500mph in the first Spirit of America when he lost control of it....

On another high speed run the car hit a slight bump and left the ground for 50ft.

Right, so at 450mph the car is doing over 200 meters per second, which is over 650 feet per second, so the car was off the ground for less than .1 of a second. It was probably still a big scary bump, but the actual jump is hardly amazing.

I'd love to go and see the cars in Coverntry, must sort that out sometime. There was a good program on BBC4 a few weeks ago about the race between Breedlove and Arfons for the record in the 60s, pretty fascinating.

Rich :¬)

[Flibb]

If mechanical failure occurs the car tends to remain aerodynamically stable, this happened with SSC when the rear suspension collapsed at around 500mph. The design of Thrust 2 ment it would have lost downforce on the front if it went over 640 mph, chances of him surviving were very slim. When Breedlove lost control of his car it retained downforce on the front, even to the degree that it managed to make a high speed U turn.

Your point of SSC being airbourne for .1 of a second, well it weighed 10 ton and the impact trashed the suspension. Maybe not incredible in time but the forces involved were tremendous.

[MasterFlash]

Nice post m8 - Interesting read

[Flibb]

Oi Baz do you have to keep putting pics of my car in your sig? Stupid question do you have a VCR? If not you can come over and watch it.

[MasterFlash]

Yeah Ill borrow it m8, nice 1

[janedean]

on 12th March there is a talk about Thrust SSC in Birmingham. Not sure where abouts though yet - trying to get details. If anyone knows about it please let me know!

[Norky]

I remember going to see it on its homecoming from the desert, many moons ago