CAN you imagine a car travelling at 1000 miler per hour? Well that is the goal of The Bloodhound Project building a unique high tech super sonic car, which aims to break the 1000mph barrier and set a new world land speed record. Nick Taylor one of a team of ambassadors for the Bloodhound Project gave a thrilling talk to the members of Ledbury Rotary Club with supporting video and photographs including footage of Thrust SSC that holds the current world record of 763mph.

Nick began his talk by quoting the Duke of Edinburgh who said recently "Everything that wasn't made by God, is invented by an engineer" and Nick was keen to stress that this innovative project hopes to motivate and inspire the next generation in the fields of engineering, science, technology, and mathematics. World land speed records are nothing new as 1929 saw a speed reached of 231mph, increased speeds showed 364mph in 1947, with Spirit of America claiming 407mph in 1963. The new Trust SSC currently under construction in Bristol will have three engines and on completion will be transported to the Aerohub in Newquay for preliminary tests. Later in the year the SSC will be taken to Hakskeen in South Africa to begin high speed runs with the aim of setting a new land speed record of 800mph and later in 2017, Bloodhound will return to South Africa to smash the 1000mph barrier.

Nick's talk provoked many questions, particularly about the car's construction, hybrid fuel, car mass, weight, speed, power and wheels. All these details can be found on the website which is bloodhoundscc.com.

In thanking Nick Taylor for his talk, Rotarian Tony Knight said that he was delighted that this futuristic undertaking had the education programme which will challenge the perception of the impossible and inspire our students to choose technologies and engineering courses.