Bloodhound: the auction of the supersonic car that wanted to exceed 1,600 km / h

A car designed to travel more than 1,600 km / h is at auction.

This means that the supersonic vehicle is on the market for the price of a Ferrari.

Bloodhound, built with a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter jet engine screwed to a rocket, it's almost finished.

The team behind the project, developed in Bristol, United Kingdom, aimed to break the current world record ground speed of 1,228 km / h.

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But it has not been able to get the money needed to achieve this, accounting for about 31 million US dollars.

As a result, the project will end, according to its current directors, announced Friday, and the car has been on sale at a price of about $ 318,000, said the driver of Bloodhound. Andy Green, at the BBC.

"I need a few millions"

Bloodhound's plan was for the vehicle to reach a record speed in South Africa, where a track of 18 km and 1500 m of width had already been prepared to Hakskeen Pan (a desert plateau of salt and mud) in the north of the country.

"We will have to find a few millions to get the car going at full speed," Green said.

"We basically finished the main structurethe desert is ready, we only need funding, "he said.

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Green would like to "see the car ride" and think that it is still possible that this will happen.

"If there is someone with $ 300,000, there is a car, it is still possible that Bloodhound rolls," he said.

Bankruptcy

The main structure of the vehicle had already been built and tested in 2017.

In a test at the Newquay Airport in the United Kingdom, Bloodhound reaches a speed of 320 km / h.

But last October, the lack of investment led to the bankruptcy of the company that financed the project.

"Since (then) we are working tirelessly with the administrators to find a person or an organization likely to carry out the project, "said Friday the co-administrator Andrew Sheridan, according to the PA news agency.

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"Despite the overwhelming support of the public and its commitment to a wide range of credible potential investors, it has not been possible to find a buyer for the company. business and badets, "he said.

"We will now work with key stakeholders to return third-party equipment, and then sell the remaining badets of the company to maximize creditors' returns," added Sheridan.

Why did Bloodhound fail?

Jonathan Amos, correspondent for CBBC News

Bloodhound is a private company. It is funded by donations, sponsors and badociations.

The company was able to take advantage of the three revenues, but this funding model did not provide enough money to fully support such a complex enterprise.

The last two or three years have been particularly difficult to obtain financial support.

The investment landscape is difficult, partly because of Brexit's uncertainty, but mostly because many of the big brands that used to put their name on a car are now using other marketing tools, such as networks. social.

The South African government had already cleared an area to try to reach the record and several rockets had already been successfully tested.

One of them, developed by the Norwegian Aerospace and Defense Company Nammo, was launched into space for the first time at the end of September. The rocket Core flew at an altitude of 107 km from the Andøya Space Center, in the north of Norway.

Bloodhound was going to use a group of three Nucleus engines in addition to the Eurofighter EJ200 jet.

Even if everything was ready, there was not enough money to go to final goal

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The project was to be carried out in Hakskeen Pan by the end of 2019, when the water from the plateau would have evaporated and the soil would have dried up.

The Bloodhound reportedly tried to run at 800-965 km / h before reaching its maximum speed in 2020 or 2021.

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