Bloodhound LSR clears 500 mph on the fastest track in the world

Andy Green and the Bloodhound LSR just got past the 500 mph barrier; as you may remember, the Bloodhound Project is aiming for 1000 mph in the long run. Even getting to 501 mph required a decade of planning, not to mention that, in the Hakskeen Pan of the Kalahari desert, hundreds of people are still cleaning up an area measuring 0.7 by 12.5 miles. That’s a massive piece of land, and the local team has already moved 18,500 tons of rocks from the track to make sure Andy Green won’t run into a single one at any speed, let alone above 501 mph.

As track chief Rudi Riek explains, the Bloodhound project does a lot more than build the world’s longest, fastest track in South Africa. The Hakskeen Pan is right in between the borders with Namibia and Botswana, and while there’s an 8000-strong local community, unemployment is a major issue. When the Bloodhound project set up its base, the local government not only brought a fresh water pipe to the region that was scheduled for 25 years later, but also set up four permanent cell towers, bringing connectivity to this dusty edge of the Kalahari desert.

What’s more, the area got reclassified, which opens it up for future tourism and may be a game changer for the region long after the Bloodhound LSR is done making engineering history. But before they could get there, the next stop for Andy and the Bloodhound is somewhere above 501 mph…