The Bloodhound car is preparing for a record - in the African desert they are cleaning the bottom of a dried-up lake for a future track

In South Africa, work has begun to clear the bottom of a dry lake for a route to set a world speed record. In 2012, a Bloodhound car will be brought here, equipped with a jet engine with tens of thousands of horsepower, so that it accelerates to 1609 km/h, reports BBC News .

Let us remind you that the Bloodhound concept was presented in July this year at the international air show in Farnborough (UK). The 12.8-meter-long model has a single-seat body reminiscent of an airplane fuselage. The six-ton ​​vehicle is powered by a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine with a power of 133 thousand hp. According to the developers' calculations, this Bloodhound power is enough to accelerate to 1609 km/h and thereby overcome the supersonic barrier, the value of which in the air under normal conditions is 331.4 m/s, or 1193 km/h.

Sponsors for the project have been found, said one of the developers of the Bloodhound concept, Richard Noble. According to him, the record run is planned for January 2012. Currently, the site for the future highway is being cleared in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. More than three hundred people are involved in preparing the track, which is about 20 kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide. They must clear the surface of the dry lake bottom from any objects that could damage the body of the supersonic car.

Note that the current “ground” world speed record belongs to the Wing Commander jet car, in which racer Andy Green managed to accelerate to 1227 km/h in 1997.