An Australian race crew hoping to beat their British rivals to a new supersonic land-speed record launched their bid on Thursday, unveiling the first parts of their rocket-powered bullet car.
Daredevil drag-racer Rosco McGlashan has dreamed of being the fastest man on wheels since, aged 12, he saw Britain’s Donald Campbell break 403 miles (645 kilometres) per hour on Australia’s Lake Eyre salt pan in 1964.
The mark has been smashed several times since and currently stands at a blistering 763mph — faster than the speed of sound — set by another Briton, Andy Green, back in 1997.
McGlashan believes he can go quicker still — 1,000mph — using rocket technology to propel his 200,000-horsepower super-car Aussie Invader 5R, set to blast off in 2014, 50 years after he first eyed Campbell’s mark.
If successful, McGlashan will travel faster than a bullet.
“I’ve served the world’s longest apprenticeship, I’ve done an apprenticeship in speed, I’ve had all sorts of vehicles, V8 motorcycles, rocket-powered go-karts, all sorts of stuff,” McGlashan, 62, told AFP.
“But it’s all been a culmination to where we’re at now, where we’ve nearly built, nearly completed the world’s best, fastest land-speed car.”
Breaking the speed record is not all McGlashan has to contend with — Britain’s Green is also gunning for the 1,000mph record with his hybrid Bloodhound SSC.
“They’ve got a lot of support from their country, and (it’s) a country that believes that the land-speed record belongs to them, it’s part of their patriotism, the land-speed record’s been in the UK for 1,000 years,” McGlashan said.
“But we’ve got a lot more powerful car, a lot tighter-knit group of guys and we believe that we can go out and blitz them.”
The 16-metre (53-foot) Invader 5R will be powered by a missile rocket fuelled with liquid oxygen and a kerosene-based biofuel. It will travel at a constant 3Gs, or three times the force of gravity and faster than the speed of sound.
McGlashan hopes to begin test runs of his streamlined, bullet-shaped car, which will weigh nine tonnes when fully fuelled, next year for a record attempt in 2014.
The British team is on track for an attempt in the same year.
Australian race crew in faster-than-a-bullet bid
