BLOODHOUND SSC is a unique, high technology project to design and build a car that will break barriers. Literally.
“Formaplex were approached by the team to provide the highly accurate CNC machining needs for the carbon fibre tub of the supercar.”
The project aims to break the 1,000mph barrier (just over 1,600kph) and set a new world land speed record. BLOODHOUND SSC is a jet and rocket-powered car designed with a slender body of approximately 13.4m length with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. It weighs 7.5 tonned and the engines produce more than 135,000 horsepower which is more than six times the power of all the Formula 1 cars put together on a starting grid.
The car is a mix of car and aircraft technology, with the front half being a carbon monocoque like a racing car and the back half having a metallic framework and panels like an aircraft.
Formaplex were approached by the team to provide the highly accurate CNC machining needs for the carbon fibre tub of the supercar. The inclusion of an air intake on top of the chassis meant that we weren’t able to machine the chassis as we would have liked. As a result the chassis was jigged and laid on its side, allowing our largest Jomach 3-axis milling machine to operate on the side of the chassis, with access to both ends. The chassis was machined in several positions over 10 days using specialist tooling to cope with the aggressive nature of the carbon fibre composite.
