June has been the the month I never dared even think about, let alone plan. It's the month when 4 years of hard slog has to come together; and it has to happen smoothly and completely on all fronts. It's an awful lot to ask of anyone, let alone all the hundreds of companies working on the project. We can no longer accept late deliveries - we have to be incredibly and outrageously demanding on our suppliers and we have to ask every possible question of ourselves to make sure we are getting it right. Again and again and again.

Curiously the suppliers seem to accept outrageously short delivery times and rise brilliantly to the challenge. Glynne was having a huge problem with the highly complicated suspension-all the machine shops at DRA Farnborough are full of our work and there is a serious capacity problem - that is until he made contact with A and Z Engineering in Reading who simply agreed to make the outstanding parts over the weekend. I was very concerned that we seemed to have no idea of the cost and was preparing for a hard body blow when Glynne rang to say that Barry Moxom of A and Z had made the parts in record time and that they were to be a donation! Thank God for our new friends!

You can tell exactly how the project is going when you walk onto the yellow square of floor in Q Shed, Farnborough. If Nick Dove or Jason Davies is smiling then all is OK - if there are frowns then the build is getting away from us and its time for one of Jerry Bliss' meetings - Jerry seems to have acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge of the entire car over and above his huge personal workload with all the systems which include 5.3 kilometers of wiring and sensors feeding 147 data channels.

It's also a time when you have to have your wits about you and never take anything for granted, particularly when there is change around. Our previous engine team from the RAF ran out of holiday time and without official support were unable to continue - so we had to build a new engine team in conjunction with Rolls-Royce. Dean Smith had spotted an error in the fuel system as designed by the old team but had been overridden. He raised the subject again and there were gasps of horror that we should have missed such an error - 'How long's it going to take, Dean?' 'Monday I guess!', says Dean knowing that he was now committed to pulling apart and rewelding the huge 3" dia fuel mains.

The problem with finishing a project as big as this is simply that you really have no idea how long it is going to take. Of course you can plan and schedule the work, but it is an experimental and hand made masterpiece and finishing actually means completing all those little jobs that were never completely finished earlier. And because everyone knows that it has to be 100%, there can never be shortcuts. It is this attitude which results in a good reliable product, which you can develop in confidence rather than an operational disaster which will require constant upgrading even to achieve basic reliability. We achieved that reliability with Thrust 2 to the point where it was becoming a 600mph desert taxi - and thats what we have to achieve with the vastly bigger and more complex Thrust SSC.

The project scale is broadening out considerably and this means that the workload on everyone begins to treble. Not only do we have to complete Thrust SSC at Farnborough, but also there are all the arrangements in Jordan to make - and of course the US issues are starting to make themselves felt as Black Rock approaches. I have four telephone lines coming through to my desk: two running faxes and two phones and E-mail. Each new 'E' or fax refers to different problems in different areas deserts or technologies and you have to try to keep ahead of the game knowing that there is very little spare capacity and very soon you can be easily swamped under a sea of paper and E-mails. This is really the key to the project: you always have to remember that only a small highly motivated efficient team can handle this - bring on more people and the productivity will fall dramatically. So there are to be no more people - we just work harder!

Alex Prosser at Spirit of America tells me they have a different problem: as a result of the huge Shell promotional campaign through 10,000 Shell retail sites their telephones never stop ringing from wellwishers. This has meant that they have had to take on a further three staff just to handle the phones.

Back in May we had a call from Lord March, who runs the famous Goodwood Festival of Speed - we had had a mock-up of Thrust SSC there in 1995 - what were the chances of getting the real car there? I hedged our bets and then promised him we would be there. Having just held a planning meeting at Q Shed, I then had to explain to everyone that I had just committed us to an earlier public unveiling. Everyone took it well but is wasn't long before the enormity of the undertaking became apparent. Mike Horne's bodywork is of course the most visible part of the car and whilst one or two other parts could be left unfinished - there was no way that we could appear without the new carbon components. I find it very difficult to convey the sheer brilliance of Mikes workmanship and his dogged determination to win through. As Andy Green puts it 'I just have no idea how you make all these parts at GForce and then bring them up to Farnborough and achieve a perfect fit!' The night before we left for Goodwood Mike had worked 48 hours non-stop and God knows how many hours in the weeks before. He just went on until he finished! 'Just got to bloody do it', he told me with a smile.

The week before Goodwood, there were ominous rumblings, Rob Widdows who puts the entire Goodwood Show together rang to say that Lord March would like to come and see the car at Q Shed. We all knew that if this happened it was more than likely that he would be horrified by the sight of Thrust SSC in millions of pieces and would think better of his offer - but he never came!

Another problem was rearing its head. Up at Rover Operations in Gaydon they were building the first of the three Supersonic Land Rover Discoverys. The car was being painted in the new BASF Supersonic Black - our new 50%-matt blue-black paint which I told you about in the June update. Mick Cook who had six people building the absolute top of the range car was not happy. 'It doesn't look right, Richard - I'm not painting the second car until we know more about it'. This was a big blow, and Mick was understandably being very cautious with something very different. I raced up to Gaydon to see the Discovery surrounded by the biggest box of goodies you ever saw - £13,000 worth of extras. The car looked exactly as we had planned it. Mick was heartily relieved, took a deep breath and continued with the build. When the Discovery made it to Goodwood, it looked a million dollars - the interesting part is that the matt paint seems to hold a much deeper colour than gloss paint and people were crowding around it clearly attracted by its beautiful looks but not quite sure why. The first of the three Discoverys is being promoted through Autocar in the next fortnight - we are selling the second in a global blind auction on the net - just click here to make your bid and you might just own an incredibly valuable car which might well appreciate!

Back at Lledo the new Thrust SSC model was being prepared - the colour scheme is very complicated because of all the new logos. The model is of course silver because we plan to paint Thrust SSC in August - this is primarily because of the very hot conditions (its 42ºC there today). We managed to get the prototype to Goodwood and sold several hundred advance orders.

Paul Lumsden at Lledo tells me that the first model of which we sold 10,000 now fetches £45 - triple the original price in 12 months. This makes Thrust SSC models a far better bet than almost anything on the London Stock Market and makes me wonder if we aren't seriously underpricing at £16.00! If the models triple in value what's going to happen to the Discoverys?

June 17th saw us announce the Jordan record bid - we managed to get the use of the RAC Main Committee Room which was an excellent presentation venue - and the evening was started with the announcement by His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Al Hussein who has done so much to support the Jordan bid. Also there was Ken Waughman who had driven his water truck across the desert in 1948 and telephoned BBC Tomorrow's World when we announced we were struggling for a new site.

We were also proud to announce the ICL, Rover and Mitsubishi sponsorships and as I write this the new computer hardware is being built - at long last we shall have a good suite of computing power which is going to keep the two Jeremys and Nick Chapman in 7th heaven. And Mitsubishi have some tremendous internet plans - which could just involve YOU!

The Jordan machinery seems to move very efficiently and as I write this Andrew Noble - the desert veteran on site - reports that the survey and the desert preparations are now finished - 5 days ahead of schedule. There is apparently huge interest and great enthusiasm in Jordan and we are getting E-mails and faxes from Mach 1 Club members all over the Middle East who are coming!

Curiously immediately after the announcement, we were sent a copy of the San Francisco Examiner which stated that Breedlove would be moving almost immediately to Bonneville for a record attempt in July. Bonneville of course gives him around 10-11 miles of track compared with the 5 miles at Edwards and the 10.2 miles we have at Jafr. But Bonneville is a hard salt surface. Now we know that almost everyone has had problems with tyreless wheels on the hard salt - Arfons, Rosco McGlashan and ourselves with Thrust 2 have had appalling directional stability problems trying to run on the hard salt surface with tyreless wheels. The wheels tend to jar up and down at high speed and when the wheel is off the ground for even milliseconds the directional stability is seriously compromised. Art Arfons said to me in 1990 when he was running the J85 powered 27th Green Monster: 'Richard, it won't find centre!' Craig knows all this so he must have the magic fix! I think we'll stay with alkali playa and keep away from the salt.

Well we did make it to Goodwood, with Brian Palmer and the Scania trucks arriving at just after midnight and the GWS crane just preceding him. Lord March had decided to place the car on a huge 100ft diameter circle of sand directly in front of Goodwood House and even provided two huge Wild West cactii to set the scene. The car looks 10 million dollars and all the time was surrounded by at least 150 people all photographing. Just nearby we had a small sales kiosk and we moved £10,099 worth of merchandise, which was very valuable. Above all it NEVER RAINED and a brilliant weekend was had by all. Autocar magazine are doing a 6 page special on the project next week - so look out for that one. There is also a truly beautiful photo of the car in Autosport this week.

Back at Q Shed we were in for a disappointment. The final work on the car has to be done in a strict sequence to ensure that everything comes together and the car is buttoned up in one smooth sequence and critical items were going to be late. We had planned to go to DRA Boscombe Down for the engine tie-down runs next week but now we would have to slip a week. But its not all bad news, with smart planning we can minimise the delay between the engine tests and the first runs at Farnborough. July 15th departure for Jafr is still possible.

I keep telling everyone that this is the worst point. After Boscombe we will have a truly beautiful car that goes - that thrills and inspires like nothing before it - just now we are not so very far away.

So July is to be the extraordinary month when it all comes together for Thrust SSC AND Spirit of America. Breedlove plans to launch on the 10th and then presumably he is off to Bonneville for about the 15th - if it's dry. About the same time we leave for Jafr - which we KNOW is dry. Breedlove is going to chance his evolutionary car on Salt - we are going to try our revolutionary car on Alkali. Both teams now have enough power and enough track to achieve a new world record BEFORE Black Rock!

Very soon the global media is going to wake up to what is going on - all I pray is that they give us a bit more time!

A crucial message to everyone who finds time to read this - we shall be updating the Thrust internet site very frequently from now on - and then daily as we start to run. For Journalists there will be a daily report with photos posted on the Media Pages so you can follow exactly what happens - good news and bad news!

Its one Hell of a time to be alive!!

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