back to article Bloodhound gang handles the pan again to get back to Hakskeenpan

The Bloodhound Land Speed Record chaps have thrust out the begging bowl to raise funds for a bid to break the 1,000mph (1,609kph) barrier next year. The car hit 638 miles per hour, or 1,010 kilometres per hour in new money, last summer pushed by an adapted Eurofighter jet engine. The team hopes to get back to South Africa and …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm, concentrated hydrogen peroxide as fuel, nasty stuff as it killed a fair few WW2 German ME 163 Komet pilots by leaks of T-Stoff or other fuel mishaps.

    1. Aladdin Sane

      C-Stoff wasn't exactly nice, and didn't help that the 2 looked identical.

    2. Vulch

      On the other hand the Black Arrow launched Prospero into LEO using concentrated Hydrogen Peroxide as one propellant component without killing anyone.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        >On the other hand the Black Arrow launched Prospero into LEO using concentrated Hydrogen Peroxide as one propellant component without killing anyone.

        Fortunately no one was sat on the top of it as they had 50% failure rate for their four launches.

        Kursk submariners might debate the safety of HTP, if any of them had lived.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          High Test Peroxide as a substitute for Sun-In.

    3. phuzz Silver badge
      Flame

      You can have an open container of hydrogen peroxide in a room and it won't kill everyone in the room.

      By the standards of rocket propellants it's practically as safe as mother's milk.

  2. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Coat

    Fund raising: claim you attempt to prove the Earth is flat by running over a flat track fast.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Username definitely checks out.

  3. macjules

    Slightly Inept

    Their concept of sponsorship seems to be to try and sell space on the side of the vehicle. Perhaps someone could mention words like "crowdfunding" or "Elon musk" to them?

    I would gladly bung a few hundred their way to see 1000mph on land happen.

    1. Andy Non Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Slightly Inept

      Who is going to read the advertising on the side of the car when it goes past at 1000 mph?

      1. jonathan keith

        Re: Slightly Inept

        The age of the blipvert has finally dawned!

  4. jonathan keith

    Crowdfunding?

    Seemingly according to their website their only funding stream seems to be sponsorship, and sponsorship packages start at £25k. Is it beyond the wit of the Bloodhound SSC team to set up a GoFundMe page or similar? Crowdfunding isn't going to raise anywhere near £8m but I'm sure they'd get something from it. I'd be happy to chuck them ten or twenty quid right now if I could find any way to do so, and I'm fairly sure I'm not alone.

    All I could find was this now-defunct campaign from 2017, on a site called crowdfunder.co.uk that I'd never even heard of until five minutes ago.

    They could even just set up a direct payment page on their own site... Anything, just as long as there's a link to a payment page that can be included in stories like this. Because hyperlinks, the WWW... y'know?

    1. Oh Matron!

      Re: Crowdfunding?

      Why doesn't The Reg do a crowd funding website sitey thing for £25K, and then sponsor Bloodhound? We can all then donate to that...

      1. jonathan keith

        Re: Crowdfunding?

        That's an excellent idea!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The last land speed record before Greta's green global CO2 emissions limit

    Incentive to advertisers: this could be your last chance to secure record-breaking infamy before grumpy Greta chides your puppet politicians into curtailing your permitted per-mile CO2 emissions.

  6. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Where's Speed?

    No disrespect to Mr Oates and his journalism, but, in covering matters of Speed, where's Mr Speed?

  7. quartzz

    glad the Reg has an article on this

  8. Phil Kingston

    So they're ripping out the jet and putting a rocket in? Not an engineer, but that strikes me as a substantial piece of work. And to be honest I don't think the public are as excited about shiny things going fast as they used to be.

    1. gypsythief
      Go

      No, the jet engine is staying in place and they are adding a rocket as well. The idea is that the jet engine will push Bloodhound to 600+ MPH, where upon the rocket is turned on to hit 1000 MPH.

  9. JDX Gold badge

    Cars are the past

    Come on guys, get to work making a 1000mph HS2 train.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cars are the past

      We'll come back to you in 20 years time, even if Manchester no longer exists then.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Cars are the past

        Oh, it'll be there, it's just that it'll be a post-apocalyptic urine-drenched hell-hole populated by barely conscious wrecks of human beings trying to eke out a living selling crap to each other.

        1. JDPower Bronze badge
          Trollface

          Re: Cars are the past

          Yup, that's Manchester

  10. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    What is the point of all this, in getting the highest speed?

    Is there any benefit from all this?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Probably a better BCR than most government infrastructure projects to be honest...

    2. Evil Auditor Silver badge
      Happy

      The benefit of this is, I guess, getting the highest speed. I mean, others collect stamps or participate in Vendée Globe and Bloodhound attempts the land speed record. Because they can. No further explanation required.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        One presumes there are advances in some scientific fields that are transferable. Although this does come across as "let's smack the biggest engine on our car" somewhat to me, refining existing tech to brute-force pushing the envelope?

        I would imagine steering and stability controls are an area needing a lot of attention.

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