Here’s how you accelerate to 562 mph on four wheels

Five hundred and sixty-two mph—that’s the latest figure reached by the team at the Bloodhound Project as they continue to validate simulation data and test safety functions. With each successful run, pilot Andy Green pushes the car roughly 50 miles per hour faster. This will lead to a moment sometime next year when they can finally attach a rocket to the car—which is currently “only” jet-powered—in order to have enough thrust to surpass Green’s current standing record of 763.035 mph.

These actual runs in South Africa were made possible by a decade of initial planning in the digital space. As aerospace engineer Dr. Ben Evans explains, their calculations look reassuringly accurate at 562 mph. To make sure, the team has drilled over 200 pressure tapping points over the Bloodhound LSR’s body, so they can now compare computational fluid dynamics (CFD) figures with the actual data gathered on a cold, windless morning in South Africa. All their good work means that looking ahead at the 600 mph barrier, the project stays in the green zone comfortably.

This kind of land speed is almost unimaginable.