Dear Mach 1 Club Member,
You might have wondered why on earth there has been little publicity on Thrust SSC of late! I took the decision to shut the PR effort down after the London Motor Show because we were getting over-exposed. Every feature on the project seemed to show the car in build and even though we were putting in thousands of man hours it looked as if little or no progress was being made - even worse it looked as though we were at a standstill!
We have now had two long sessions with Craig Breedlove and an agreement to race -this means that the two cars will run together on the Black Rock desert from September 10th. We will be sharing track and timekeepers and this promises to be the greatest of all motor races with the LSR probably being broken several times during the 30 day event. We have also been through all the public meetings in Nevada in order to get the approval to run on Black Rock. Hopefully the permits will be issued early in May- and then the event is ON. With the Spirit of America Shell promotion involving 10,000 retail sites together with substantial television advertising and our internet site likely to reach 1m accesses in May, the interest level is going to be very high indeed.
However, first things first. The Thrust SSC build is coming to an end and in early May we shift Thrust SSC and all the support equipment to Farnborough where we take up residence in Q Shed and have access to the main runway. This is now an incredibly tough period- we have to get Thrust SSC through final assembly to engine start up during May- following on with running trials in early June. This is a very difficult and tough time because once the car starts to run then we find out exactly what we have got-and what we need to fix! We have been offered a desert for high speed trials later in the summer and final negotiations are underway- more news on this one shortly! I am very envious of Craig Breedlove's Shell title sponsorship. All his team has to do is to get the project to the next agreed stage -and there is a Shell stage payment cheque- as easy as that. Things are rather different over here-each time we get to the next stage we have to find another three cash sponsors! In fact there is an upside to our situation. Each time we land another sponsorship the project has to go through a thorough examination and scutiny and effectively it gets better and better with each new deal. Not only that but the new sponsors contribute their skills and resources and improve the project yet again.
So now we all have to pull together to get Thrust SSC through to start up. With this letter we are inviting you to come to the Farnborough Open Days and offering the special arrangements for the Gold Members including the high speed runs and a Gold members dinner. Please make a point of coming. If you felt like upgrading to Gold but were not sure- there will never be a better time.
Thank you so much for all your help, which has had a tremendous impact on the success of this project. Let's get the job finished together.
Richard Noble |
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