It's no secret, we were just about bust by the time we got ThrustSSC to the London Motor Show. I always believe that if the bank manager isn't phoning on a regular basis you are just not trying hard enough!

James had phoned from G-Force; Grayston White and Sparrow had sent a 100 tonne crane to lift ThrustSSC - well we did need to lift it up over the 40 ft trees - and there was the small matter of switching off the local electric power cables. All I can say is that it is one hell of a crane! Mike Horne's perfect composite nose was mounted on ThrustSSC at the last minute and we rolled her out. I can tell you it's one hell of a moment when you see the big car outside for the first time - because all I've seen is a mass of paperwork and endless sponsor persuasion rounds.

The car looks really beautiful - it is a pure and perfect aerodynamic shape - there has been no styling, and it was all created on Ron's PC with 16,000 co-ordinates.

Are you really going to crane it up with the nose on? I asked James. You try and bloody stop me! James gets pretty possesive at times!

Another great character is Brian Palmer of Plane Trucking ('Planes') who moved the huge ThrustSSC mockup and engine through every show this year: Brian is always first on site and always the last to leave. This time he had his hands full because the huge ThrustSSC trailer is now classed as a wide load - and the police made him overnight on the M25 before setting off for Fontwell.

Although you may have seen this all on the ITN television news, the best footage is on the new Castrol video which we will put on sale shortly.

The Motor Show was a fantastic experience - over the 12 days we moved around 250,000 people through the stand which was worn out and dangerous by the end. To run the stand we needed 198 person days which were supplied by the Mach 1 Club members, the sponsors and the team. Sally and Ninetta Hearn ran the merchandising which broke all records generating £56,000 ($85,000) in sales. Jerry Bliss - who manages ThrustSSC's complex systems (142 channels, 5.3 km of wiring, etc., etc.), otherwise known as 'The Boffin', did all 12 days. In fact by the end everyone's feet hurt so much that as The Boffin says: "All you can do is laugh!!". Andy Green signed about 5,000 items, in fact together with his girlfriend Jayne they had to set up a production line - and the DERA ThrustSSC simulator he had developed at Farnborough moved 776 people in 12 days. Interestingly it was the 8-12 year olds who put up the best speeds on the simulator - one doing 846mph average. Me? - well all I could do was about 832mph - after all, what am I supposed to know about all this!

During the Motor Show Digital's Internet Kiosks were generating huge interest - and for the first time our access rate passed 36,000/week. I am told this makes Thrust a more popular site than The Louvre in Paris!

Apart from the usual Motor Show benefits - it is a great show for bringing people together. I was struggling with a Michael Turner print sale when a voice said: "Remember me, Richard?". Jim Hawkins - the great British Airways wireman! I have happy memories of Jim unhurriedly sorting the wiring on our huge RB-211 Tristar engine in the middle of a January snowstorm at Cranfield. We were trying to build an Atlantic Challenge ship and had to test the engine. Since there was a marked reluctance to test the engine on normal rigs we had built our own engine test rig, mounted the huge engine, bolted the test rig to a concrete road and connected it to the Cranfield fuel tank farm. Jim just pressed the button and it ran up with a huge sheet of flame out the back! Incredibly impressive!

The Boffin had been worrying about wiring and here was Jim conveniantly retired from BA and ready to get started! Magic!

The Motor Show succeeded in bringing the entire team to its knees - everyone's feet hurt so much that there was now a general reluctance to travel or do anything other than sleep! There was a huge moment of relief when Ron phoned through to say that Brian and ThrustSSC had at long last got away from Earls Court and was on his way back to Fontwell.

After that it was back to the treadmill - keep the cash going - keep G-Force paid. But I noticed something very different in the air - there is a new raft of would-be sponsors who are determined to be aboard. I still don't think it will make much difference - we are right back again to the business of Endless Persuasion and worried Board members whose greatest fears are that the ThrustSSC will crash and the last surviving piece of bodywork will carry their logo!

I rolled up at Taxan's office in Bracknell to return one of the huge Ergovision monitors we had used at the Motor Show. Taxan was one of the earliest cash sponsors and had joined us right after the launch in June last year. As I staggered past his office with the monitor, Hugh Chappell the managing director called me in with an offer of tea.

He picked up one of the 10,000 Thrust SSC diecast models we had sold. "Don't think that the Taxan logo is very prominent." I had to agree that he had a small patch on a huge car. "Well, I've had a think about all this - and we'd like to upgrade to a main sponsorship."

The next surprise came from Bristol. Rolls-Royce's main board had saved the day with Thrust 2 by providing last minute help with the Avon 302 engine. Their help had directly enabled us to achieve the LSR, but the Board was only too aware that it had been a close thing and I don't think they were keen to become involved again. In fact in our plans we had never counted on getting Rolls-Royce as a sponsor - it seemed totally unattainable. But Chris Fairhead, the Director of Fleet Engines at Rolls, had other ideas. We had met at the Air Tattoo at Fairford in the summer and he decided to go for it. It took him a great deal of effort to convince the Rolls Board... Gold Member Martin Emsley, a Rolls employee, had visited G-Force on one of the Open Days and unknown to us was pushing hard. His letter was given banner headlines in Rolls-Royce News and suddenly on November 23rd, we found ourselves presenting to the Bristol Board. After and outside in the car park, Ron and I had to restrain ourselves - after all of this seemingly endless struggle, Rolls-Royce had joined to look after the engines! Frankly it was one hell of a moment - and it is quite clear that Rolls intend to really go for it because early next year they have asked us to do a special roadshow for the Rolls employees.

Toward the end of the month Breedlove rang. After protracted negotiations he had at last got Shell as a main sponsor. He tells me it is a strong deal and it goes well with General Motors. When we both realised that our 1996 programmes seem very similar, we decided then and there to race both cars together in the autumn. Craig will be running SOA at Edward AFB in April - and Thrust? Well, we've got to find a special dry desert for high speed runs in May.

Andrew, my brother (he drove the Thrust 2 transporter in 1982 and 1983), arrived back from desert hunting in the US and we had only a few days in which to source tickets and get him off to check the desert sites in Africa. No news from that quarter yet.

In Australia Rosco McGlashan is in high spirits; he has been fighting every conceivable battle over the last 11 years to get his Aussie Invader 2 LSR to record speeds. Backed by Channel 7 television who incidently produce some of the very best of the LSR footage - ever - Rosco has been gradually building experience and backing. The AI2 made it to 550 mph but the directional stability was poor and so Rosco is now into a huge against-the-clock programme to build a new car for next summer! If he times it right, he ought to be able to raise the LSR ahead of Spirit of America and ThrustSSC.

As we spoke, the frame was being completed and its quite clear he's in with a good chance.

Now all we have to do is to finish ThrustSSC for end Feb. James tells me it's going well and he is on schedule - but can we match him with the finance?

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