1000-mph Car Planned 380
Posted
by
kdawson
from the zum-zum dept.
from the zum-zum dept.
Smivs notes a BBC report on a British team planning a 1000-mph record-breaking car. The previous land-speed record broke the sound barrier. The proposed vehicle will get from 0 to 1,050 mph in 40 seconds.
"RAF pilot Andy Green made history in 1997 when he drove the Thrust SSC jet-powered vehicle at 763 mph (1,228 km/h). Now he intends to get behind the wheel of a car that is capable of reaching 1,000 mph (1,610 km/h). Known as Bloodhound, the new car will be powered by a rocket bolted to a Typhoon-Eurofighter jet engine. The team-members have been working on the concept for the past 18 months and expect to be ready to make their new record attempt in 2011."
1000 mph speed, 100 gallons per mile efficiency (Score:4, Informative)
Re:falling forwards (Score:3, Informative)
Re:falling forwards (Score:2, Informative)
You are assuming constant linear acceleration. I think it is safe to say that the acceleration when the rocket motor is turned on will be somewhat more dramatic than that. Even if you use your figure, bear in mind that gravity will still be there, and the combined force will be sqrt((1.19g)^2 + (1g)^2) = 1.55g, so the pilot would feel 55% heavier than normal.
Fixed that for you.
Re:So? (Score:2, Informative)
The proposed vehicle will get from 0 to 1,050 mph in 40 seconds. Yeah, sure, but... how well does it corner?
Like a missile.
Re:The real question... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:3, Informative)
To be fair, the entire US customary measuring system is obsolete...
And yet its powers of two make it far easier to represent in binary memory without incurring rounding errors.
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:4, Informative)
Stop insulting trolls. He's just a clueless idiot.
BTW, most people don't realize that their tires are speed rated. Tires are just rubber balloons, after all. Just ones with really thick walls. They will deform and even come apart if pulled hard enough. The faster a car goes, the more pull on the tire's tread and sidewall. Once the pull starts, it will most likely deform to an out of balance shape. In this case that out of balance will translate to a vibration, which translates to a bump, which translates to a lot of pieces to pick up off the desert floor.
A post above gave the figure of 173g for a 1m wheel travelling at 1000mph. That 1m wheel will be spinning at 8542 RPM. A slight imbalance at that rotational rate? Even the engineering of the tire will need novel ideas for strengthening the sidewall and lightening the tread to keep it balanced.
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I've got a better idea (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:3, Informative)
measurements like miles per kilowatt
Kilowatt-hour is what you want here. The watt is a _rate_ of energy consumption (power), not a lump of energy. Kilowatt-hour is the equivalent of one kilowatt consumed over the course of one hour: 1 kWh = (1000 joules / second) * 3600 seconds = 36000 joules
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MPG is an obsolete measurement (Score:3, Informative)
Remember the wheels are travelling on the ground at mach 1.4, if they were uncovered the top of the wheel would be travelling at mach 2.8 with regards to the local airflow. That's up there with the SR71 in terms of velocity.
Not only that, but it happens at close to 1 atm whereas the SR71 hits those immense speeds in the stratosphere. This car is an incredible aerodynamic engineering challenge!