JC: When we think about land speed records, we think of the Bonneville Salt Flats. JC: When watching film of your runs, it looks as if you are driving in an absolute straight line.ĪG: Or not straight, as the case may be ! Because of design limitations with the ThrustSSC, while approaching the speed of sound, I was more than 50 feet off-line at 90 degrees of steering with the car sliding sideways. Once I’ve shut down the car, I'm just waiting for timekeepers to read out the numbers to confirm that we have achieved the aim. So there’s a focus on delivering the last bit of the contract, which is not only to break the record but to break it safely. But, of course, I'm still driving more than 700 mph in a car I need to bring to rest safely without damaging it or myself. Apart from the timekeepers - who aren't talking to anybody else via radio - I’m the only person who knows we've achieved it. I was fairly delighted that we actually got back through the measured mile this time within an hour. JC: What were you feeling inside the car as you finally set the record?ĪG: Once I have the car going back, accelerating through transonic into the supersonic region, obviously I'm looking at the distance down track to see exactly where we are, exactly what speed we’re doing. This time it all went perfectly, and we had eight minutes to spare. You had broken the sound barrier and land speed record two days earlier, but didn't get the car turned around within the requisite hour to make the runs count?ĪG: We missed by 49 seconds! It wasn't much, but we had lots of minor delays. Andy Green with his ThrustSSC car which set a land speed record of 763 mph in 1997.
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