RE: Bloodhound SSC project enters administration

[bloomen]

CaptainRAVE said:

A real shame, but a lot of money for something that will be obsolete and beaten before too long.

Yep. Round my way there's a bunch of lockups. Mr Smith in 3a is aiming for 1300 mph. Mrs Drake in 7b is going for 2000 before xmas. Mr Patel is the dark horse at the end of the cul de sac. He's going for orbital velocity on the ground by the weekend.

[chrisironside]

I contacted Universal Studios about this.
I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films. I'm sure the Fast and the Furious franchise could justify getting onboard and using Bloodhound for advertising purposes (e.g. The Fast and Furious Bloodhound SSC) before putting it to use in one of the films and the live shows.

Not sure they could justify it at £25M, but worth a punt...

[havoc]

great_kahn said:

I will front them the cash, but I want to be the one driving it, and I want my widow to keep the wreckage.

EFA!

[cookie1600]

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this.
I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

Really???

I'm sure the Coventry Transport Museum would have noticed it being pushed out of the door:

https://www.transport-museum.com/visiting/biffa_aw...

[h0b0]

Edited to remove content. I’m not here to start an argument or criticize the hard work of others.

Edited by h0b0 on Tuesday 16th October 16:40

[Blown2CV]

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this. I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

not sure if you are being serious but that sounds like bullst.

[rickprice]

This is not an investment - investments have profits (hopefully). This is a charitable bottomless pit.

It is a folly that would fund a thousand nurses for a year (literally - start salary of a qualified nurse is £22k). And believe me we'll all need one of those sooner or later. £110m? Thats a quarter of the annual budget of your local District General Hospital (Umpteen hips, knees, cancer operations, A&E...)

So when you hear someone say 'your health is the most important thing in life', consider where you're suggesting this money goes.

Oh - and I'm not a socialist, far from it. I am pure capitalist. Someone will throw the money at these guys but I happen to think it could be better spent.

[Blown2CV]

a lot has happened in 10 years i suppose, outside of the project. Was the original aim to have it done within a decade?

[pozi]

It is a shame given the engineering effort behind the car but the constant delays will have spooked any new investors. Sponsors expect results and this has turned into a bit of a marketing white elephant.

Just look at the timeline. It was announced to the public in 2008 and due to be running 2011/12 before design delays pushed everything back. Jaguar came on board 2014 to 2016 but the only memorable thing that happened was when Andy Green crashed the Bloodhound liveried XJR at Goodwood. Geely stepped up in 2017 which seemed to pay for the Newquay run then more delays were announced and the car was not going to turn a wheel again until 2019.

Is another £25m a realistic figure, according to the 2017 Cisco video they had invested £30m and were still another £30m short but who really knows??

[donkmeister]

Bit late to the discussion, but in response to the "jobs for the boys, never planned to work" comments, back when Thrust SSC was being developed Noble et al were already stating a goal of 1,000mph for a follow-up car.
The thing about Richard Noble is that whilst he is charismatic he is also a realist and solidly grounded in engineering... Anyone who works in an engineering discipline knows that you develop, test, iterate, repeat. You can risk manage all you like, but when you're at the cutting edge of technology/human experience then noone knows exactly how much work is required at the outset. That is why the cost has overrun.
If you aren't a proper engineer you just chop the wings off an F-104 and hope for the best.

[wab172uk]

Ahonen said:

wab172uk said:

IN51GHT said:

wab172uk said:

I might be naive, but why does it take another £10m to get from 800mph to 1000mph?

Surely the car is designed and built from the outset to achieve 1000mph?
Big Jet engine? Check
F1 engine to act as fuel pump? Check.
Wheels all straight? Check

So all the bits are there. You just need to open the throttle to 11.

Yes, I know it's more than that, but another £10m? For what? Just seams a lot of money, as once you're there for the run, you're there.

Maybe the wage bill and Christmas Bonuses are the factor?

Totally different rocket system to develop, plus any mods that are required post 800mph running.

Why do they need a totally different Rocket system? They have a Jet engine that they have installed, and been calculated to be enough for 1000mph. If the engine is only capable of hitting 800mph, then what was the point (expense) of designing / building a car around it?

So, we don't need another engine. So where does £10m go on additional design?

I do wish them luck in succeeding, but as said above. What is the point? And what will be achieved, other than it being recorded as a world record in a book.

What's the point? Wow. You would have told Edmund Hillary there's no point climbing Everest because even if he got to the top he'd still have to walk down again.

Look, I appreciate you know absolutely zero about the subject matter and that's absolutely fine. I know nothing about open heart surgery, but I wouldn't wander onto a public forum and make some statement about how easy open heart surgery probably is.

There is a guy commenting in this thread who worked on the project for several years. He knows more than any of the rest of us, so maybe ask him a serious question and let him answer you. Then don't argue afterwards.

Good God. Another guy with his head up his own @rse, that berates anyone who doesn't have the same view as himself.

So go on then Mr. Know-it-all, what exactly is the point of this project? What will we learn about traveling at 1000mph across the land? How will it affect our lives now and in the future?

Yes, it's a fantastic feet of achievement for those involved in the project. And a very big achievement for Andy Green to become the man who drove it, and more importantly survives driving it at that speed.

As said elsewhere, it's a folly for a bunch of enthusiasts, who are relying on an even smaller bunch of very very rich enthusiasts to fund it for them.

It's not even in the same ball park as open heart surgery, or even being the first plane to break the sound barrier. Both have contributed to either saving many many lives, or have made the movement of goods and people far safer and speedier. So please share your superior wisdom as how this is even similar?

PH is becoming like the liberal party. Don't toe the line in your thinking, or you'll instantly become under attack by a few lunatics who think their view is the only view. All other views must be silenced.

And I'm guessing you didn't read (or just ignored) the bit where I said I wish them luck.

[hondansx]

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this.
I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films. I'm sure the Fast and the Furious franchise could justify getting onboard and using Bloodhound for advertising purposes (e.g. The Fast and Furious Bloodhound SSC) before putting it to use in one of the films and the live shows.

Not sure they could justify it at £25M, but worth a punt...

Well in fairness, Fast and The Furious 8 took $1bn at the Box Office!

I guess I'm another who has failed to get excited about this. It feels a bit BBC2 to me.

Doesn't mean it has to be like that though, I bet the likes of Red Bull could make it sexy. I mean, how has doing 1,000mph become boring? It's never been done before, and it's an inherently dangerous endeavour.

The Felix Baumgartner supersonic jump got them 44m views on YouTube and just added to the coolness of the brand. With a great storyline, showmanship and cinematography, it could be made into something far sexier - not just a project of some nerds in brown coats.

[Dr Jekyll]

Blown2CV said:

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this. I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

not sure if you are being serious but that sounds like bullst.

To be fair the styling of one of the Batmobiles did seem to be based on Thrust.

[percymk4]

I think it's genuinely sad that projects like this are ridiculed and dismissed with "what's the point?".

It's a bloody land vehicle aiming to go one thousand miles per hour! Using rockets and jets and with a human at the wheel.

Surely it's in our nature to be amazed by stuff like this? We see so little of it these days as the boundaries of technology and endurance have been pushed so far already. Or Is it not cool to be excited by stuff like this anymore? Do people get excited by another 25 million being sunk into the NHS black hole? It's a drop in the ocean.

Fingers crossed they get the funding they need.

[ukaskew]

h0b0 said:

However, if it wasn’t for that thread I would genuinely not have known there was a record attempt. Surely, that’s questionable when the funding can only come from publicity.

The publicity appears to have been pretty focussed so far (understandable given it's still relatively early days), but if you've attended a large event involving engines it's been hard to miss, such as the Festival of Speed, RIAT etc. A fairly cost effective way of reaching hundreds of thousands of people who are most likely to be interested before it actually starts to run.

The educational outreach has been fairly substantial too, so I'm sure many, many (I think in the millions now) kids have been exposed to the project.

[Blown2CV]

Dr Jekyll said:

Blown2CV said:

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this. I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

not sure if you are being serious but that sounds like bullst.

To be fair the styling of one of the Batmobiles did seem to be based on Thrust.

it would be about 1/50th the cost to just make a mule that looks like Thrust than it would be to buy the actual thing. That apart from the fact that it seems to be in a motor museum, not looking like batman's shopping car.

[unsprung]

ukaskew said:

unsprung said:

would be thrilling if such money could instead contribute to an unexpected breakthrough -- and UK-held IP -- in something of a somewhat pivotal nature

maybe some aspect of battery-electric powertrains or fuel cells, the connected car, lightweight materials that cost buttons...

Many, many times £25m is being spent regularly on a whole range of research projects. Most of them aren't particularly sexy though and will be under wraps until a breakthrough occurs.

As we speak my workplace is expanding with a £60m Advanced Automotive Propulsion facility, for example. You won't really hear about it unless/until some interesting breakthrough occurs though.

It doesn't have to be an either-or thing, £25m regularly gets wasted on all manner of 'pointless' things, it's a drop in the ocean to many.

as I typed my post, I thought, "Some earnest chap will reply that £25-million is nothing in a national economy of £2-trillion"

so, with this in mind, I made sure to apply the verb "contribute"

and here we are <raises coffee mug> . .

[h0b0]

ukaskew said:

h0b0 said:

However, if it wasn’t for that thread I would genuinely not have known there was a record attempt. Surely, that’s questionable when the funding can only come from publicity.

The publicity appears to have been pretty focussed so far (understandable given it's still relatively early days), but if you've attended a large event involving engines it's been hard to miss, such as the Festival of Speed, RIAT etc. A fairly cost effective way of reaching hundreds of thousands of people who are most likely to be interested before it actually starts to run.

The educational outreach has been fairly substantial too, so I'm sure many, many (I think in the millions now) kids have been exposed to the project.

I’ve removed my other posts because I’m not here to start an argument or criticize the hard work of others. I think the portion you have quoted can stay though as it’s relevant to the discussion.

Perhaps I was more aware of the previous 2 attempts because I was the right age to benefit from their focused publicity.

[Europa1]

cookie1600 said:

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this.
I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

Really???

I'm sure the Coventry Transport Museum would have noticed it being pushed out of the door:

https://www.transport-museum.com/visiting/biffa_aw...

There has been more than one record breaking car called Thrust - google Thrust 2. Still sounds like an iffy claim - I would have thought it would be a lot cheaper to get a props department to build a Batmobile than convert an actual jet powered car.

[chrisironside]

Europa1 said:

cookie1600 said:

chrisironside said:

I contacted Universal Studios about this.
I seem to remember that Thrust was converted and used as a Batmobile in one of the films.

Really???

I'm sure the Coventry Transport Museum would have noticed it being pushed out of the door:

https://www.transport-museum.com/visiting/biffa_aw...

There has been more than one record breaking car called Thrust - google Thrust 2. Still sounds like an iffy claim - I would have thought it would be a lot cheaper to get a props department to build a Batmobile than convert an actual jet powered car.

Yep, doesn't seem to be one ounce of truth in it!

Should have done a little due diligence first. It was the Batman/Batman Returns one I thought it applied to.

Doubt Universal will take my proposal seriously now &#128518;