"We are on our way to Mach One now!"
With those words Richard Noble, current holder of the Land Speed Record, introduced the latest and most exciting phase of his new Castrol-supported Thrust SSC venture to establish the world's first supersonic speed mark.
Noble was speaking on June 17 at the RAC Club in London's Pall Mall in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - a key figure at this crucial stage.
The Thrust SSC team, led by Noble and driver Andy Green, will engage in high-speed combat with American rival Craig Breed love later in the year, when both go to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. This was where, in October 1983, Noble set the current record of 633.468mph (1019.453kmh). However, the team needs to run Thrust SSC long before September, when the Black Rock Desert will have dried out after its winter rains. From past experience in the Eighties with Thrust 2, Noble knows that minor development problems inevitably arise in such high-tech projects. He therefore set out to locate a new desert track that would satisfy his requirements of adequate length and access, a hard smooth surface and suitable weather, so that Andy Green could undertake preliminary trials at meaningful speeds well before the long haul to America.
Noble's brother, Andrew Noble, the team's desert expert. thus initiated an intensive programme which involved visiting and assessing no fewer than 13 possible deserts on three continents.
He first considered Al Jafr, in Jordan, as a result of the desert search being highlighted in the BBC Tomorrow's World series on the project, which prompted contact from former Royal Engineers serviceman Kan Waughman, who had been watching at home.
"I immediately remembered Al Jafr," Ken recalled. "I was there doing a topographical survey with the Royal Engineers in 1948, and we'd go out from central camp in Ma'an to the base camps. 1 drove a truck delivering water, food and mail, and had never forgotten driving across the Al Jafr mud flats. It was like being in an aircraft taking off You felt you were literally floating. You 'd just set the hand throttle, put your feet up, and away you'd go. The surface was as smooth and flat as a billiard table.
"When I heard of Richard's search I got in touch and told him about Al Jafr. Personally I'd love to go out there to see the record broken. I think this is the same as Donald Campbell's attempts. It's something that's needed in this day and age."
Breedlove has subsequently declared his intent on running at Bonneville as soon as the 11 mile salt surface dries in July. Green, however. will have up to 10.2 miles (16 kilometres) of alkali desert at the Jafr site which is close to the Royal Jordanian Air Force base and three hours from Amman. Given the extraordinary performance of Thrust SSC, this should be sufficient to yield a new subsonic record of around 650mph (l046kmh). A key factor in all this is the unpredictable behaviour of Breedlove's aluminium and filament-wound composite lightweight wheels on the marble-like Bonneville salt. In 1981, running with aluminium wheels on Thrust 2 at Bonneville, Richard Noble found the constant jarring of the hard wheels on the hard salt surface caused substantial directional instability. Equally in 1990, Art Arfons, also driving with aluminium wheels, found himself unable to keep straight. Similarly, in 1995 Rosco McGlashan had severe stability problems with Aussie Invader 2, shod with aluminium wheels, on Lake Gairdner's concrete-like salt surface.
The crucial benefit of the Al Jafr desert is the combination of the length, immediate and predictable availability and the alkali playa surface which has more 'give' than salt and presents the hard aluminium wheels with a kinder, more compliant (and more draggy) surface. This crucial benefit will not only enable the team to make significant progress, but should allow it to establish a valuable edge over the Americans in the all-important build-up to the head-to-head in the United States.
Thrust SSC went on public display for the first time as a finished vehicle at the annual Festival of Speed at Goodwood, UK, on June 22-23. This was doubly fitting, since Goodwood had been the venue for other land speed record car displays in the past, and SSC was built by G-Force which is located nearby at Fontwell. Noble also exhibited a full-scale mock-up of the car at Lord March's 1995 event.
Thrust SSC's advance party has already left for Al Jafr. After trials of the massively powerful afterburning turbofan engines and the first low-speed runs under power (which will be conducted at DRA Farnborough immediately after Goodwood), Thrust SSC and the remainder of the team will leave for Al Jafr aboard a specially-provided HeavyLift Antonov 124 aircraft around July 14.
When Noble and Breedlove finally meet up in Nevada in September for the greatest race in land speed history, they will share desert time. "From then on," says Noble, rubbing his hands with anticipation, "It will be a friendly war of attrition!"
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