Well, April was better than March - which was something of a low spot - and for once we made a few really good decisions. The money situation is still poor but the project has changed out of all recognition and its really storming ahead.

It all started with the usual friendly monthly meeting with GForce: which is now an extremely successful builder of racecar parts. The problem facing us all was that GForce was now generating substantial work which was paying better than we could and this was facing the management with embarassing decisions. They are of course focussed on profit: we are focussed on the first supersonic and the two objectives were sliding further and further apart. Another key point was that the Thrust team was straining to develop its own identity and this was confused by the reliance on the GForce workforce who were unlikely to follow us into the desert.

It was quite clear that the time had come to make the big move. Some months ago we had decided that DRA Farnborough was the place to be - it was near London, has a good runway and is the home of our sponsors DERA. Security on the base is excellent and of course there is the tremendous Farnborough historical legacy. But could we operate as a small very fast moving team with minimal resource in the middle of a huge Government funded institution? I had real doubts, but Andy seemed to think it might be possible. For the last three months he had struggled with the job of asking the Farnborough people to consider making the most unusual decisions. Runway insurance for example was a huge problem - eventually we managed to get down to £25M third party - but what was that going to cost? Were we going to end up on a site where we couldn't afford the insurance to even venture out onto the runway? We had had a few insurance meetings which started off with the famous Noble opener: 'I know what you think this is worth, but I also know that we can't afford to pay it - so are we going to take this any further or shall I take our limited funds somewhere else?!' Amazingly CRS Insurance Services achieved the most incredible Lloyds insurance deal and suddenly all things became possible.

When Ron and I had run the Thrust SSC supersonic models at Pendine in 1993/4 the Long Test Track was under the control of Martyn Davidson who as the only serving RAF Officer on site had the range under exemplary control. Martyn, now promoted to Squadron Leader, had moved to DRA Farnborough and I rang to ask whether he had any spare out of work time and could we borrow his amazing organisation skills? Martyn just said yes - and found himself project managing the move from Fontwell. Around this time also George Swindell of Plane Trucking our trucking sponsors agreed to make Brian Palmer available on an as-required secondment. Brian immediately became responsible for the projects transportation and came with a supply of Plane Trucking vehicles.

The Internet team had previously advertised on the site for help with the move - and 20 volunteers applied. British Aerospace and DERA gave us Q Shed - a large draughty hangar with a series of tired and dirty offices - and Martyn and Brian did the rest. The whole move just went like clockwork - whenever I turned up at Q Shed people were painting like fury and the day after the move we were operational with a complete new workshop outfitted with Lista furniture, machine tools and our own workforce. It was a magic operation and a great credit to everyone - next time we do this it will be in late June and the move will be 3 thousand miles - so I guess its a good test run!

The workforce looked like being a major problem. How do you get a really high quality aerospace workforce together in a short time and make a seamless transition from GForce? James Morton had actually provided the key, by searching out three highly skilled sub contractors to work on ThrustSSC. Nick Dove, Steve Dennis and Jason Davies really meant business and production surged ahead. It was clear that with the move their contract was coming to an end and we needed our own workforce.

Together with Mike Horne we met around the table at GForce. I explained that we have a tremendous project have little money, are probably the most risky employers in the business and we work as a team, without supervision. We needed a hard working team who did not charge by the hour, who would build and maintain the car - and would set the build targets working all hours that God gives. We would be prepared to sign on for the life of the project. Mike and I then headed down to the GForce canteen for a cup of tea, wondering what the hell would happen!

We made it back to the conference room to be met with three sets of broad grins.

There was a few seconds of haggling and we all swore allegiance. Morale and production soared and the project took on a completely new dimension. Starting next week we run 12 hour shifts.

Peter Ross has developed into the most tremendous support manager - with his RAF and British Airways contacts there seems to be almost nothing that Pete can't find or source. This vast range extends from engines and spares right through to build team. Just before the move, Pete rang me from home at some God awful hour and spoke in a peculiarly strangled manner: 'Richard I can't make it today - I've got chickenpox'. Jerry Bliss jumped into Pete's shoes, managing Systems as well as Support and the first thing he did was to turn up at Q Shed with his bed roll. Jerry looked comprehensively knackered by this weekend so I guess the Bank Holiday will do everyone some good and Pete will have become medically safe.

You may remember that Glynne Bowsher was one of the founders of the project, and that he had designed the wheels and brakes for Thrust 2. At the start of the Thrust SSC project Ron and I had asked him to scheme out Thrust SSC wheels and decide whether we could do a safe 850 mph wheel. This had much the same effect as lighting the touchpaper on some massive rocket. Within weeks, Glynne had graduated from wheels to suspension to frame and then to hydraulics. Not only that, he had decided to have all the parts built locally in the Midlands and he was intent on there being a solid Midlands involvement. Not having anyone to delegate to, Glynne decided to go ahead and detail design every part of the Thrust SSC suspension wheels and frame. He works for Lucas Automotive who at the start of the project were deep in troubled waters and were not enthusiastic about Glynne's supersonic ambitions. So Glynne solemnly got stuck in, working the most appalling hours and fitting in his work around the Lucas job. The City of Coventry decided to back him and before long 14 Coventry companies were making his components. Dunlop decided to back him and entered into a huge programme building the low speed and high speed wheels and brakes. All this was having a very tough effect on Glynne who was now the spider in the centre of a huge industrial manufacturing web and there would be days when everyone came back to him with queries. We would be used to ringing Glynne, making the most demanding of demands and getting a grudging acceptance which would commit Glynne to yet another overnight session in front of his screen. At the back of all our minds was how long could Glynne take all this - would he just get up and walk away? If he did, would that be the end of the project?

Well the break came last week. I phoned Glynne to make yet another outrageous demand and his outlook had changed completely - he was laughing, appeared light headed and I imagined him leaping around the Lucas office furniture!

'I can't bloody believe it', he gasped.

'What's happened?'

'Well ten minutes ago I was called into my Boss's office and told that George Simpson, the Lucas Chairman had personally seconded me to the Project!'

This was one Hell of a bit of luck.

The time had come to build the project's PR image again. We had deliberately shut down all publicity for six months because we were becoming over exposed and I could see that soon the public were going to get fed up with the long haul to completion of Thrust SSC. We could no longer afford our PR consultants - everything had to be oriented to the build.

Our friends at the BBC who had given us 8 Tomorrow's World Programmes were also getting fatigued. They tell me that they are interested in continuing with a major documentary feature, but that will have to wait until the big meeting on May 10th.

In fact looking at our accounts, I was amazed to find that only 33% of our revenue had come from corporate sponsorship - I knew it was small, but I didn't realise it was that small. So 77% of the whole Thrust SSC funding has come from trading - all those zillions of rights, merchandise, Mach 1 Club memberships, and Motor Show stand sales have outcontributed the corporate cash sponsors by over 2 to 1. So if that is the new pattern - that's how we have to continue!

So how do we recover the PR without the PR consultants and with a deal that pays?

We targetted two deals and I went to see Alan Copps at The Times. The synergies between the Times Car 96 and Thrust SSC were good and prospects of achieving links between the two web sites and the Mach 1 Club seemed tempting. Kevin Eason and Alan had given the subject two whole pages at the start of build so there was an initial level of interest. It took some 10 days for the deal to go through - Alan kept his enthusiasm high the whole way through - and the Times had bought the press rights to the project for May!

The effect was quite startling - for on May 2nd The Times editor gave us the prime front page picture - of Brian in his Scania truck towing Thrust SSC to DRA Farnborough. That morning I was in a rough mood - a particular deal we were focussed on was coming unstuck. The Times came through the letter box at around 7.00am and from then on everything was forgotten! Within 15 minutes Jeremy Davey had it on the front page of our web site and the project was accelerating like never before.

The Times did it again on Saturday May 4th with a huge front page feature on Car 96 and the TI ad on the back page. The great joke is the RAC ad immediately below the feature - I'm going to write and take up their claim! That night the internet broke all records - recording 9173 hits in one day.

The other media deal is going through - it's very ambitious and it requires a large overseas organisation to make an instant decision, but I'm told it's looking good and we will know next week.

So whilst Spirit of America is in the paintshop having a beautiful colour scheme applied, we are still in pieces at Farnborough. Even worse we are far behind schedule on the composites which require many hundreds of careful man hours. Mike Horne and I have agreed on an outrageous scheme to bring this up to speed in three weeks. Its possible - stage one has been achieved - but will the rest follow?

The big question is this: 'Can we get the Thrust SSC engines running by the end of May - and can we finance all this?' That's going to require one Hell of an effort and I guess that's the first test of the new build team! After that we are into low speed, and then very quickly after that high speed, trials.

More crises next month!

	Sponsored by	This site best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3