World’s first supersonic car goes under the hammer, costs £250,000

Remember Bloodhound SSC, an unfinished concept of a supersonic car that was originally built to set a new world speed record by accelerating to 1,690 km/h (1,050 mph)? Well, its owner – the British company Bloodhound Programme Ltd. – is now officially bankrupt and selling its assets. If you want to become the owner of this truly one-off ride, make sure you have £250,000 to pay for it. Hey, a new Ferrari 812 Superfast would cost you the same…

The needle-shaped racecar is 13.5 meters (44.3 ft.) long and comes powered with a jet/rocket hybrid engine and a small electric add-on. More specifically, the powertrain brings together three Nammo liquid-fuel rockets, a 500hp / 373kW Jaguar engine which functions as a fuel pump, and a turbocharged variant of the Rolls-Royce EJ200 engine equipped with a Eurofighter jet afterburner. The latter was a gift from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence…

The design capacity of the Bloodhound SSC exceeded the unthinkable 135,000 horsepower, or 100,669 kilowatts! No wonder it was so challenging to build…

During the tests that took place last year, the developer team accelerated the vehicle to 322 km/h (200 mph). However, any further development necessitated adding two more jet engines to the build, which in turn required at least £25,000,000 in investments. In the end, the company failed to repay the loans and had to discontinue the project permanently.

Photo: autocar.co.uk