Page 63 - Car South Africa (February 2020)

At 1 280 km/h,

the wheels generate

about 45 000 G

The wheels are 930 mm in
diameter, weigh 100 kg each and
are made from forged aluminium
alloy. Tony talked me through
their manufacturing process (at
a cost of £200 000 each), followed
by the careful balancing method
of shaving off mere grams from
these beautiful items.
At 1 280 km/h, these wheels will
be doing about 8 000 r/min, gener-
ating approximately 45 000 G. Just
let that sink in...The three sets of
wheel bearings were the very rst
parts to be speci ed.
The small windscreen changes
the direction of the air ow at high
speed. Tony explains: “When you
go through the sound barrier, that 07
shock wave is almost vertical.
As you go faster, the wave bends it needs to push the car through 08 07 The upper chassis holding the jet engine.
downwards. What you don’t want thicker air. 08 The nose stows equipment away from
the heat at the back of the car.

is supersonic air going into your The nal speci cs regarding the
intake for the engine, otherwise tment of the rocket, batteries and

the engine stalls. You need to slow electric motors that provide the the maximum deceleration force
down that air in some way. The power to fuel the rocket must still possible with these wheels on this

result is the air below the shock- be nalised. The fuel tanks are also desert surface is just 0,15 G. That
wave is going subsonic and the air made of carbon- bre with bladders is about 15% of the maximum

above the wave is going super- on the inside. There will be a tank braking performance of a modern
sonic.” The same type of stretched holding around 1 000 litres of high- car. The double parachute system
acrylic used on jet ghters is used test peroxide (hydrogen peroxide) serves as a backup.

for the small windscreen and is including the rocket pump. The The rear suspension compris-
about 50 mm thick. only emissions from this compact es a massive set of springs and
The cockpit’s hatch, Tony rocket are water and oxygen. dampers, wishbones and the delta
recalls, is probably the cheapest “When we do land-speed record “wings”. It’s one of the prettiest
design element on the entire car: runs, we have to refuel the car af- parts and I’m trying to compre-
“We got a piece of cardboard, cut ter each one; in those 60 minutes, hend how this system absorbs all
an oval in it and then bent it. I’m we have to turn the car around the forces at such high speeds.
about the same size as Andy, so and get it ready for its second run.” Spray dust and base drag are

as long as I could t through the Subsonic, trans-sonic and su- terms used to explain aerodynam-
opening, we knew he would, too.” personic are the three speeds this ic challenges the team face but
Behind the cockpit, the design car has been designed to conquer doors with holes in them that that is part of the ongoing research
inspiration for the car changes in terms of performance and aer- open vertically and are sited in and development that makes
from motorsport to aerospace. odynamic ef ciency. Interestingly, front of the rear wheels. They this project so awe-inspiring. The

Here are the lower and upper once supersonic speeds have been deploy slowly over the course of company is working hard to nd
chassis, the latter holds a Rolls- reached, Tony says, “Everything several seconds. sponsors to assist with this nal

Royce EJ200 jet engine from a Eu- tends to settle down as the air ow Finally, Andy can brake the con- part of the project. I can’t think of

ro ghter Typhoon. The jet engine over the car is uniform.” ventional way via the car’s wheels a better space for branding than on
does work a little harder on the The braking system includes to bring it to a stop. However, as one of the most exciting projects

ground than it would in the sky as a pair of carbon- bre air brake he told me during our interview, of the 21st century.

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