What Made You Gray Out?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I've been very lucky to have been able to give my family and friends an inside view and personal tours behind the closed doors of a few racing teams and super car companies. Usually made a bit more special as we have the factory to ourselves so are free to wander around at our own pace while I look for cool stuff to show them. Be it fully assembled or part built cars, parts made using leading edge technology and materials.

I try my best to explain everything in the simplest way possible so they can relate to what is being discussed but the facts and figures are so beyond their normal level of comprehension it starts to mean nothing to them. Their distant vacant stare and metronome nodding of the head with a few whispered um hum's are the signs that usually gives the game away.

The expression I use for this over loaded mental state is 'greyed out' or with North American guests its 'grayed out'

Last weekend I was on the receiving end of my own very own special factory tour looking around what easily must be one the most extreme cars ever. Over many years I've become quite hardened to all things car speed related but the info. I was hearing was so beyond my normal level of comprehension that after an hour and half I'm not ashamed to say I got to the point where I 'greyed out'

The moment came when sitting in the cockpit, I was fine looking around and discussing the cockpit controls, run sequence etc but totally lost it when I had a closer look at the speedo

[masraum]

Bloodhound?

The BBC has done a few articles on some aspects of it, how the particles sandblast the body behind the tires and make it thinner, how the tail is, I think, hand riveted and how the holes for the rivets are drilled in a 4 or 5 stage process. Very cool stuff.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Well spotted, sorry I'm still suffering from the side effects, here are a few links for those that like facts and numbers

The official website
BLOODHOUND SSC

This is a good thread to follow that has plenty of pictures and info.
Bloodhound SSC Thread As Requested..... - Page 1 - General Gassing - PistonHeads

[masraum]

Cool, thx

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

The expression I use for this over loaded mental state is 'greyed out'...

What makes me 'gray out'? Trying to make sense of the owner's manual for any new car with computer-controlled everything!

[wildthing]

Hmmm I think I've heard 'tuned out', 'eyes glaze over', 'zoned out'... But 'grayed out' to me means the option or link is inactive/unavailable in that context.

[Heel n Toe]

Dude. Not in socks. That's just wrong... you'll totally wipe out in the twisty bits.

[Embraer]

The word epic is overused. That being said....this is epically cool.

[Justin@Athens]

I watched a youtube video about this project sometime back. I like cars, and planes, and understand the fundamentals of their operation...but the complexity and details of this construction are so "other worldly," it is difficult to grasp. The short film I saw was akin to watching someone try to explain how the space shuttle worked in a commercial.

[DanielDudley]

I get heavy brain fade if there is too much clutter. I'll be fine, and one day it will hit me like a ton of bricks.

[motion]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Coolest speedo in the world! Very cool that you were able to check out that amazing piece of engineering.

[Scott Douglas]

Looking at all those machined bulkheads seen in your second linked document brought back a lot of memories. I could tell they weren't flying them, they're way too heavy for that and there weren't any carbon fiber facesheets either.
Looks pretty cool.
I usually grey out when reading a camera manual, especially if it has an 'Auto' button that'll get me pictures without thinking too hard about it.

[masraum]

Holy carp!

I've combined a few quotes from the pistonheads thread from the same guy about the same thing.

This is the hole where the APU will be fitted through, an F1 engine, used solely for turning H2O2 pump.

It's used to power the fuel pump for the rocket, via a reduction gearbox.

Basically we need 750hp to turn the pump to deliver 1000 liters of H2O2 at 1000psi in 20seconds

I was talking to an F1 driver on the stand at Goodwood FOS this year & joked about how we use the engine from the back of his car a fuel pump he took some convincing!

Something else



Lots of interesting short articles about tech tidbits here.

BBC - Search results for bloodhound diary

[javadog]

Very cool project. Could spend all day poking around something like that.

I was a bit disappointed by the 3 or 4 basic structures of differing materials and designs that were bolted together to make the whole structure. Not the most elegant solution...

JR

[MikeD930]

javadog,
You may not know this...it does make sense to use different materials and designs in this rocket sled on wheels since it's similar to fighter aircraft in general. The area around the jet engine gets very hot (up to 600 deg F) so one cannot have aluminum or composites without resorting to titanium or high strength steel. Typically a fighter a/c has alum/composite skins and structures in area of low temp and titanium in areas of high temp. I know this since I've been in fighter a/c design for 30 yrs.

caption A jr,
Thanks for sharing your photos...I did not know about F1 engine being used! That's pretty humiliating to an automotive world...eh?

[javadog]

I do know a fair bit about that. If you watch the video that Chris Harris did, you'll find he assked one of the designers this same question. The answer given was that (paraphrasing here) that a certain company made each section for free (or a good price) using whatever materials and technology they used in their normal business and (I assume) that they were wanting to promote.

Nothing wrong with that, as it helps the budget a bunch, but it is a little less elegant than it could have been.

I think the F1 engine has been tossed in favor of a well-built Jag motor.

JR

[masraum]

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by motion

Coolest speedo in the world! Very cool that you were able to check out that amazing piece of engineering.

Speedo is very cool, especially the Mach 1 position, like the Singer guys the Bloodhound guys were influenced by Spinal Tap so it had to go up to 11

I found checking out the engineering very cool but after looking around I left with a slight twinge of regret. A week before I'd been approached about joining the team as a design engineer but I said thanks but no thanks. It would have meant being away from my family during the week for the next year.

I did suggest a modification they could do to the steering column which I they liked the sound of, if they do it I was told the drawing will be named after me, I'll need to have a copy of that to go up on the wall in my man cave

Originally Posted by javadog

Very cool project. Could spend all day poking around something like that.

I was a bit disappointed by the 3 or 4 basic structures of differing materials and designs that were bolted together to make the whole structure. Not the most elegant solution...

JR

Agree with you on that but as a lot of services were provided for free compromises had to be made.

From my humble perspective I think the approach to the safety cell using carbon fibre and ballistic materials is spot on.

The mid upper section that holds the Euro Fighter jet engine is a fabricated titanium structure similar to a latest generation fighter aircraft but the lower section is fabricated steel which is needed to cope with the pounding the desert surface will give it.

However the rear billet aluminium bolted framework holding the rear rocket motors looks a bit bitty to me but this should hopefully be replaced as some point with a lighter and stiffer steel space frame.

I think the total spend so far is around $34 million and they require about the same again to be able to go for the record. As far as I know the money is in place so its ano a matter of if but a matter of when.

As automotive engineering challenges go it is a massive challenge but done for all the right reasons and that is to inspire the next generation of engineers.

This thread needs more pictures

It's a big car, you can use my big dog to get an idea of the size of this machine, if the car was made of steak or cheese he would have shown a lot more interest


Rocket motor juice tank, its 1000 ltrs/264 US Gal, drains in 20 secs., there are 3 big rocket engine that sit under the jet engine, not sure of the spec. but they plan to introduce them in two stages during the developement runs. Fuel pump is a tuned Jaguar V8 motor, the tank is also back filled with nitrogen to stop it imploding while all the rocket fuel is sucked out


The aluminium tanks on the side of the cockpit I think are to cool the V8 fuel pump and behind them up against the carbon cockpit are at least 1" thick ballist protection made from composites, should protect against a 1kg piece of aluminium


Fuel tanks for the Euro Fighter jet engine, they are not that big as I guess its not going very far

[Captain Ahab Jr]

A view from the big chair, screens can be individually set up for different readings, there is no ejector seat so its a case of strap in tight and hold on until the vehicle comes to a stop The steering wheel is 3D printed from titanium


There is a carbon fibre duct that fits inside the upper structure that directly feed the jet engine. I thought the upper structure was beautifully made, hand rolled titanium sheet with titanium ribs all riveted together with perfectly flush rivet heads, a stunning bit of craftsmanship. The jet engine has been borrowed from a Eurofighter Typhoon and so new its not even been de-classified but Rolls Royce have been very supportive and have donated two EJ200 engines
Cold end

Hot End


Service truck, only a 1hr turn around is permitted before a run in the opposite direction has to be made. If Bloodhound over shoots by 4 miles or more it doesn't leave enough time for refueling. I certainly would want to be waiting at the other end of the desert with a car coming at me at a 1000 miles an hour

[JD159]

Third day of my MBA program last week we had a horribly taught stats crash course seminar and I don't have a math background.

Definitely grayed out.