Depending upon your social conditioning you may or may not like a few things about the British; however, for automotive enthusiasts, the United Kingdom has always presented more than a few reasons to get excited about. The McLaren F1 comes to my mind first and so do images of classic BSAs, Nortons, etc. Then there’s this one, a picture of which I remember cutting from a newspaper way back during my school days in the Stone Age… Okay, it was in 1997.
I am talking about the Thrust SSC car that still holds the land speed record at 763.035 mph (1,227.985 km/h) set by an RAF (Royal Air Force) Pilot, Andy Green, way back in 1997. He intends to break his own record with the new ‘Bloodhound SSC’ (pictured above) at 1,000 mph (1,609 km/h) by 2016. The new car puts out 1,35,000 horsepower – that’s more than six times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together!
The supersonic car was showcased in New Delhi recently by the British Council as part of the ‘GREAT BRITAIN’ campaign, and it will be followed by the ‘Education UK Exhibition’ tomorrow and day after (at the British Council, New Delhi) for students who want to know more about studying and living in the UK. According to the press release, the Bloodhound SSC project is a visionary science and technology project that highlights the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Education. Therefore, the British Council got this car to India in an effort to inspire the young generation to pursue higher education in STEM courses and later opt for careers in those fields.
There are 401 part-scholarship awards available this year worth 1.51 million pounds (approx. INR 151 million) for varied subject areas like Engineering, Art & Design, etc., across 57 UK institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Andy Green said that he really hopes that this ‘Engineering Adventure’ will inspire Indian students to benefit from the world-class UK courses on offer in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. While that should sound motivating enough for students, we at MotorBash would just want to wish the best of luck to Andy for his upcoming new world record attempt. Godspeed mate!
