The Bloodhound 1000mph land speed record project has been relaunched with a new base and livery – with the project’s new owner vowing to let it “off the leash” and start high-speed testing as soon as possible.
The project appeared to strike terminal trouble late last year after entering administration, before being rescued by Yorkshire entrepreneur Ian Warhurst. Bloodhound has been rebranded, refinanced, repainted and moved to new headquarters in Gloucester.
The core team that built the car over the past decade is already at work reinstating previously laid plans to set a new land speed record on a specially prepared track at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa, and press on to beat the 1000mph barrier.
Rebranded as Bloodhound LSR (for ‘land speed record’) and displayed for the first time today in a new red-and-white livery, the machine is being prepared first for an initial series of high-speed tests in South Africa following a number of runs at up to 200mph on Newquay Airport last year.
The project has moved from its old base near Bristol, and will now be based in new premises in the SGS Berkeley Green University Technical College, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
The car’s new livery – a red fin with a white body – is intended to encourage new investors in the project, which for the first time will offer both title and livery sponsorships. Bloodhound’s original yellow and blue livery, from what they’re now calling the R&D phase, will still be used in photographs and videos, the new owners say.
Warhurst has established a new company, Grafton LSR Ltd, to run the project. The name is taken from an 1839 painting by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, which now hangs in the Tate Gallery, of a bloodhound called Grafton.
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