The Bloodhound SSC, Or ‘’How Do You Stop From 1609 Km/h?’’
The Bloodhound SSC programme is actually navigating in uncharted territories; their engineers are currently working on building a vehicle capable of reaching 1,000 mph (1,609 km/h) on wheels, which has never been done before.
Various challenges include finding a suitable engine (a turbine from a Eurofighter Typhoon) producing 135,000 horsepower and supplying enough fuel to said engine; a supercharged Jaguar V8 is needed to shove enough oxidizer into the turbine.
There is also the matter of slowing down. At that speed, you can’t just use typical discs and calipers; parachutes are the only way of slowing down this contraption.
Jaguar helped the team test their aerodynamic brakes by strapping them to the back of an F-Type R and going 299 km/h before deploying them. The system worked flawlessly, generating about one tonne of drag to slow the vehicle down.
Now that they know they can stop, the Bloodhound SSC team can focus on going faster than any car ever has.