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"I want to see how fast this car can go."
You would like Ian Warhurst. In fact, you may have to thank him for the continued operation of your car. His company, Melett, made spare parts for turbos. Over the past 15 years, the demand for turbos has exploded, as has his company. He sold it 18 months ago: "and I was thinking of retiring, tinkering in my garage [he has a couple of pre-war Rolls-Royces], walk the dogs. I knew I would engage in something else, but I did not think it would be that fast. "
TG: So why are you involved?
IW: Cut me in half, and he is said engineer in the middle. When Thrust SSC was running, I was one of those people who got up at six in the morning to download the latest video on my 6k modem and see how they got it. had obtained the day before. So, I have been Bloodhound for years. I think I was one of the first club members 1K – my brother got me the member certificate for my 40 years.
When I heard that the car was in the administration, I thought, "It's a shame, but maybe it's just a way to get the creditors together and keep them at bay while getting more credit. funds". And then I got a text message from my son Charlie saying, "Hey daddy, did you see the car for sale, why are not you going to buy it?" Hahaha "kind of thing.
So I looked at it and thought it was a shame, because if an auction was going on, it would just be exploded and sold everywhere. So I logged in, found an email for Richard Noble and sent him a letter saying, "you do not know me, I'm an engineer, I just sold my business, I have a few books , can I help you?" e-mail right away saying "Absolutely, I'm going to talk to you now because administrators are literally about to break the car".
TG: How fast have things progressed from there?
IW: It was Monday. On Tuesday, I went to Bristol and met the administrators. And I realized that if I left this building without agreeing, they would wait outside and that was all. So I called my lawyers on my way home, and on Friday afternoon I signed the agreement. And then, I said to myself, "Yes, I actually bought the thing on the skip, and after?"
TG: Do you plan to sponsor the entire project yourself?
IW: Well, we want to run the car as fast as we can, we do not want it to hang around, but the plan is to use sponsorship. So we went back to the original sponsors and gave them their first refusal. Some of them agreed and others said they wanted to invest elsewhere.
TG: And if sponsorship fails, will you support it?
IW: The answer is that I could afford to bring this to the desert and get it down and make a ground speed record, but that wants to be sponsored. I have the money to continue to fund it and my money will be replaced by a sponsorship when it is paid out. As far as I'm concerned, I would like to think that I'm going to break even.
TG: Do you have a time scale?
IW: I do not have a date yet. I'm not saying anything to anyone because the only thing I'm not going to do with this project is to say, "We're going to do it then," and then do it. Because it would be just a disaster.
It's the most expensive car I've bought from far away!
TG: How have you been involved so far?
IW: I was out [Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape of South Africa] two weeks ago. I met the prime minister and I drove the pan to 100 miles an hour in Land Cruiser and it was pretty scary! I went to Norway to visit the Nammo rocket factory. How cool is it? We plan to test for that in Newquay. These last months have been very busy. And the first thing to do was to get a building. Fortunately, we found this place quite quickly. And it's perfect – attached to SGS [a new university technical college]I want to do something in return because I had a good engineering career, so if we can inspire students, that's great.
But really, I am excited about the idea of running the car. The goal of the project is to obtain a ground speed record. And I know that in the past, the goal was only to inspire children and education, but I think that's a natural consequence of what we're going to do.
TG: Most of the original providers support you?
IW: One of the problems administrators had was that they were trying to empty the old building and that there was a lot of equipment, loaned or loaned, mostly by a handshake. But since it was not Bloodhound, they had [the administrators] could not sell it. They contacted these companies to ask them to withdraw their business and the suppliers answered "no, we do not want, we want the project to continue". The directors had never seen anything like it. So yes, all the suppliers were brilliant. The goodwill behind this thing is simply phenomenal.
TG: How much did you budget?
IW: We are currently figuring out the details of setting up the car, the cost of buying a 747 and so on. And we do not have all these quotes yet. So I do not have the total number. I have an idea. And for my part, everything is in the right zone. That's why we said it was commercially viable, let's go. And I know I can afford to finance that, so let us go.
It's the most expensive car I've bought from far away! But compared to what they spent at first, I know it was a very good deal. But very quickly, what I paid doubled to cover only the first months of rent and so on.
TG: And the goal is a new land speed record?
IW: It is the objective. Let's wait for this goal and then we'll look at the next phase: see if we can reach 1,000 mph. But if Andy Green moves away at 850 km / h and says, "That's all, it's crazy," then that's all we'll do.
TG: How big is the crew on Bloodhound full time?
IW: There are about 15 people at the moment, who form the main team. In addition, some engineers, mechanics and technicians help us because we had to empty the old building.
So we filled up a lot of things that we do not need anymore. In fact, I have my X5 with me today with the team, and this afternoon, I will be in my suit and bring the trailer here with the last elements.
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