Bloodhound SSC project leader still hopeful of new funding

Land speed record holder Andy Green believes that the 1000mph Bloodhound SSC project still has a chance of survival, despite administrators ending a search for funding last week.

The project, which was attempting to smash Green’s 1997 land speed record set, went into administration in October. Last week, administrator Andrew Sheridan ended a six-week search to find the £25 million investment needed.

But Green, one of the driving forces behind the project, has told Autocar that he believes there is still a potential buyer who could save Bloodhound.Green says that when project bosses voluntarily put their company into administration a couple of months ago, the team was contacted by around 200 interested parties, 20 of whom were serious enough to sign non-disclosure agreements and visit the project's Bristol HQ.

One potential buyer with a a firm foothold in technology, who could well afford the £25million-plus Bloodhound needs to get back on track, simply couldn’t raise the money before the beginning of the new year, to meet the administrators’ schedule.

“You can’t blame the administrators,” says Green. “They work according to a strict process. But their action means we’re in the last ditch. But it also means the world’s best and fastest straight-line racing car — and the system needed to run it — is now on sale at about the tenth the price you’d have paid for it last week. What a bargain! And all the people who need to know this have learned about it by now.”

Green admits hope is fading, but believes that even if Bloodhound never breaks his 763mph record, or achieves its planned 1000mph, its creators can still take pride in having “put UK engineering on a global stage” and “interested about two million kids in science and technology you need to build a car like Bloodhound.”

Read more

Bloodhound administrators end search for funding

The man trying to save Bloodhound (from October 2018)

Bloodhound SSC: inside the factory building a 1000mph car