A few years ago, Anthony Hopkins tried to persuade us that he was a really fast guy in a movie called “World’s Fastest Indian.” It was apparently not a sequel to “Last of the Mohicans.” Jaguar has realized the potential for Englishmen to set land speed records, and unlike Hopkins and his cute motorcycle, the famed automaker will be using a jet engine on wheels and the F-Type R, now with all-wheel drive.
The world land speed record was set in 1997 at about 760 mph. A new project to challenge this record is centered on something called the Bloodhound SSC, a long, tubular vehicle that features both a jet engine and rocket propulsion. It’s the scariest thing we’ve ever seen. It’s designed to produce 135,000 horsepower and aims to break 1,000 mph without lifting off.
While the engineers are busy making sure that it will not explode, Jaguar is handling the communications preparations. Although it sounds like the title of a new Adam Sandler movie, this is actually about making sure that the Bloodhound’s driver will be able to communicate with his support team during his speed run. It’s also about capturing high-resolution video, and other data.
For the people who want to know, “What’s it like to drive at 1,000 miles per hour?” this is how that question will be answered.
The above video shows how Jaguar is doing that. To simulate the Bloodhound’s run, a jet plane and an F-Type R basically start at opposite ends of the desert and then floor it toward one another with the jet a mere 50 feet off the ground. Because math, that simulates the 1,000 mph speed of the Bloodhound with the stationary ground crew.
It’s a similar problem to when space shuttles re-enter the atmosphere. They’re coming in at speeds so high that normal communications equipment black out until they reach more reasonable speeds like 0 mph in the ocean. To do this, they’re creating a custom 4G LTE device that beams data like a ray, instead of broadcasting it like our cellular networks.
Super high speeds in the deserts of South Africa are as good a place as any to show off the new all-wheel drive system of the F-Type. When you’re going 186 mph and a jet is doing 500 knots 50 feet above you, it would be nice if your car could maintain grip. That’s the kind of grip that Jaguar’s all-wheel drive provides.
As your pre-eminent Jaguar dealer for Raleigh, we would love to let you experience the F-Type for yourself. Stop by and get behind the wheel.