Thrust SSC: Land’s Speed of Sound Pioneer

Today, we are so used to talking about the Bugattis and the Hennesseys so much we forget there were other cars on the speed scene. In the 90s there seemed to be an incessant obsession with speed by the Brits. Shortly, after having the McLaren F1 being declared the fastest production car in 93’, the Brits did it again, however they were going for more than the speed of sound in 97’ as they did it with the Thrust SSC.

The Thrust SSC was able to beat the previous record set by the Thrust 2 which was at 633mph. It reached a peak speed of 763 mph, which broke the sound barrier and had it immortalized in car history. Making its run in Black Rock desert in Nevada, USA, it was driven by Royal Air Force Wing Commander, Andy Green. The record was broken on October 15, 1997 and was recognized by the World Motor Sport Council in November the same year.

The car is black in colour and looks like a gigantic bobsled, with two rocket-like engines on either side. Its design accentuates its length which is at 16.5m long, while its width was at 3.7m. It weighed in a massive 10.5 tons that is like having roughly 10 Hennessey Venom G5s. However, for its huge weight it had an astronomical 110,000 bhp being produced by two afterburning Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines. These translates to 998 bhp/tonne, which aids the car to make lightweight of its size. The engines are the same as those found in the British F-4 Phantom II jet fighters.

However, with such engines the car comes with a thirst for fuel, downing 18 litres/second, while exuding a net thrust of 223 kN. If you turn this to regular car mileage you’ll get that its fuel efficiency is at 55 L/km.

Before they even set upon breaking the record the Thrust SSC team did a lot of extensive tests in the autumn of 96’ and the spring of 97’. These tests were carried out in Al-Jafr in Jordan which ultimately proved to be a good test track.

The Thrust SSC team was designed and developed by Richard Noble, Jeremy Bliss, Glynne Bowsher and Ron Ayers. Of particular interest is Noble who broke the car top speed on land record in 1983 with the Thrust 2. Thus, the Thrust SSC further cements Noble’s legacy with his affinity for record setting speeds in motor history.

In 2012, Orange launched its advertisement of the Orange San Diego mobile phones which contained an Intel processor. It was broadcasted in British televisions and featured a computer-generated fast car. This however was to the ire of Richard Noble who took them to court and claimed they had infringed on his intellectual property. He further claimed that the car was a copy of the Thrust SSC and that both Intel and Orange had cast a long shadow into his forthcoming project the Bloodhound SSC project. However, the Advertising Standards Authority rejected the Bloodhound’s complaint. Intel and Orange also defended themselves and said that they had researched on various super fast car designs before coming up with the one that featured in their ad.

Newer projects such as the Bloodhound SSC and the North American Eagle are competing to rewrite history as each takes a shot at being the fastest on land.

Do you believe that the Bloodhound SSC did in fact break the sound barrier or are you a little more skeptical? Have your say, leave a comment.

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Cris Shaki

Author at Motor Sport Nationals.com

Passionate about cars, tech, people, business, history, art & writing. I also enjoy being a graphic designer and web designer.

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