The Joseph Whitaker School Young Engineers SMASH the Guinness World land speed record for a model car taking it from 287mph to a whopping 533.1mph!

Date: Saturday 4th October 2014
Venue: The Rolls Royce runway, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Saturday loomed with one of the worst weather reports imaginable with 30mm of rain forecast when we were to attempt our first run!

We set up the gazebos in the pouring rain and soon had 'tent city' ready.

Very soon, the smell of sausages and bacon - care of Mr Lloyd, started to waft around the runway.. Heaven!

I was totally humbled as I watched my Young Engineers and their parents set the Launch course out. We have two launch ends that are bolted to the runway with 8 bolts each and a 3.5 ton winch that is also bolted to the runway with 10 bolts.

A 255 meter long 3mm steel 1x19 strand cable is then unrolled and fixed to one launch end and the other one to the winch. The cable is then pre-tensioned with 450kg of tension (everyone has to be at least 15 meters away from the cable at this time in case the cable snaps)

As soon as this is completed, the timing circuits, PA system and parachutes can be put in place.

By 12.30, we were all complete and had a bit of lunch care of the very helpful parents and also Mr Lloyd's portable gas barbecue!

In quick succession, Lindsay Chapman from the National Physics Laboratory arrived. She will be officiating over our timing system.

Ruth Amos (Young Engineer for Britain 2006  – representing the Young Engineers club network)

Grant Gibson (representing Bloodhound) was fully involved as he has already been at a variety of rocket events and being an amateur rocketeer himself.

Visitors started to arrive from 1.00 and soon our tent city was alive with people and activities

It was soon 1.45 and I ran a safety briefing for all - simply, listen and stand up just in case something goes wrong and you have to run for your life!

2.00- launch time! We need to beat 287mph...

Redshift went first and was perfect! First run 451.93 miles per hour. A 35 minute turn-around and the second run also went perfectly - 504.26 miles per hour!

An average of both time - 478.10 MPH - a NEW WORLD RECORD and it was only 2.40 in the afternoon!

Now for Bloodhound - 30% more power, but heavier... Could it go faster? Well, no... First run 434.54mph and the second run 463.3 (second runs are back down the runway which has a 2' slope.. not much but it does add about 20-30mph to the run)

So no new World record here.. The reason was down to the change in the chassis tube. We originally had cut holes to lighten it, but left these out of this model as we were concerned about the forces the parachutes and stopping system would have on lightened chassis tube.

It is now 4.30 and we can see that we have only another 90 minutes of daylight!

Insanity's turn.. 100% more power than Redshift, but again a rather heavy car.. we were getting a little anxious!

What a launch! We were not let down! First run - a blistering 509mph! a 37 minute turn-around (we were getting good at this) and the second run - A MASSIVE 556.28 mph!

An average of 533.10mph.. Another new world record in just under 3 hours!

The sun was setting and we had a lot to pack away and get home.

It was dark when we all got home, but Facebook and twitter would not stop pinging away!

The Duke of York even congratulated us on Twitter!

Don’t believe me?

We are now trolling through all the video footage of the day - about 90 hours’ worth to create the video evidence needed by Guinness! Cannot wait to hold our Guinness World record certificate!

Regards

Phil Worsley and his Record Breaking Young Engineers
The Joseph Whitaker School
Warsop Lane
Rainworth
Nottinghamshire
NG21 0AG