'We need £600,000 or $990,000. This is not an appeal for funds - it is simply a statement of what we intend to achieve by August 25th'.

I am sure it was the right thing to do - but at the time I had my doubts. We were in the Directors Library at the Science Museum in South Kensington. There were 40 journalists and three camera crews at the Press Conference and we had been presenting to them for 75 minutes. Andy was concerned that the audience was showing no sign of emotion or even responding other than changing the tapes on their recorders or scribbling in pads. But the media are like that, they were not here for an entertainment (even though Andy was on crutches having come to grief in a pool in Aquaba) - they were here for the story.

The story is a good one - we have a viable supersonic car which is stable and has terrific performance at 540mph and is capable of accelerating through Mach 1 at 0.75G. The car is stable, the teamwork is exceptional and we are in with a strong chance.

All we need is money and fuel - as simple as that!

I could see that the mention of the £600,000 had disturbed the media and they were either going to headline our cash needs or quietly write us out of the news as being one event which they doubted would ever happen. If you're a newshound, you've seen it all before, you know what is news, you've created news, and of course you know what will never happen. But just sometimes you could be very wrong.

The press conference generated some interesting comment - but no headlines. I never saw a mention of the £600,000 in the cuttings.

It's a large sum of money and it is needed to pay past bills (we've cleared a great of those now) to keep the project running for five months, to pay for the Antonov costs and its huge fuel bill and lastly to fund our operation at Black Rock for 6 weeks. There is no profit in that figure - it just serves to highlight one aspect of the enormous difficulties we have in mounting the supersonic challenge 6,000 miles away from our base at Farnborough. And we don't have that money - we spent everything we had making it to Jafr.

So over the next 55 days we have to repair ThrustSSC's rear suspension and repaint it ready for Black Rock, find the money and go. Simple as that.

So how do we do it? Well, we have to have a credible plan and then get on with it - there isn't much time! So this is what we are doing:

1. New Major Sponsors. We have six possibles and we need to land two.
2. Existing sponsors. We have 229 of them and we are asking them to buy larger quantities of ThrustSSC merchandise, tempting them with very juicy offers. We are also asking them to take customer/client hospitality evenings at Farnborough. And we need them to encourage more of their workforces to join the Mach 1 Club.
3. The Mach 1 Club Members. Here we are inviting our members to Farnborough and encouraging them to take part in the final push to make budget. There is a special Gold Card Lunch - and we are selling used parts of ThrustSSC. We are also starting a promotion with them and picking the Mach 1 Club Black Rock team.
4. Retail. We need to sign with a major newspaper in order to run a major national Black Rock promotion to build the membership and also promote our sponsors. We also have written to every car and bike club in the UK (there's a thousand of them) to invite them to Farnborough for a Universal Studios tour and presentation.

So this is where the grand marketing plan finally pays off. What we have tried to do over the years is to build our markets to a point where we believe they will deliver the funding punch. Note that nowhere are we asking people to make donations or looking for Government handouts - we are going to achieve this commercially giving people good value for their money.

At the front of the Web Site, Jeremy Davey is going to put up a graphic which shows the current level of funding - and there is going to be a weekly prize for those nearest to the weekly figure. Since not only the funding, but the budgets and the exchange rates fluctuate all the time - we are expressing the figure as a % of total. Today we are at 9.22% with a long way to go.

To run a programme on this scale means that everyone in the team has to work 7 days a week and at least 15 hours a day. Not only that but we have to draft in large numbers of Mach 1 Club members to answer the letters and pack the merchandise. Holidays go, outside interests go - it's just a long and almost endless haul to make budget. But at the end of all this, we know we can achieve that supersonic record!

So create the plan, add the fine tuning, and push the button!

Well, the most incredible things are happening! First in is the Daily Telegraph - which is now Britain's largest and most prestigious daily paper with a daily readership of 2.8 million. They are going ahead with a major promotion and a special supplement in the main paper. The supplement started as a small promotion, but since then it has grown at a huge rate as the sponsors piled in with their advertising. So watch the Daily Telegraph closely. They are also branding the Mach 1 Club which now becomes the Daily Telegraph Mach 1 Club.

Leigh Remfry is out on the road again with his Rover car piled high with merchandise. He visits sponsors and gives presentations to their workforces - and you can just see what's happening: Leigh's sales are now up 400%.

Back at Farnborough another delivery of 1000 ThrustSSC models arrives - we have now sold 23,000. Also the team from Amalgam arrive with their finished ThrustSSC master. They are putting a 1:20th scale Boardroom model into production. We took the model into the workshop and put it before Amalgam's most critical audience; Nick Dove and workshop team. There were gasps of delight so I guess that the Amalgam team have got it right - certainly its the most beautiful model you ever saw, with full cockpit detail. We get our first production sample next week.

The Machmeter watches are selling extraordinarily well and there is another large batch on its way from the Timex factory in Philippines. So if we have any web followers in Manila could you please advise the Timex people that we need our delivery sooner than possible! Interestingly I have been wearing mine for a month now - and I don't think I am going back to my expensive watch. The Thrust watch is really light and the time easily read. It certainly attracts comment - the usual comment is "Let's have a look at that amazing watch!" or "What Mach is it now, Richard?"

Back in Farnborough work is underway on the rear suspension and our friends Norman Kench and Dave Houghton for Survirn are deep into a rebuild. Thank God for sponsors like Survirn, who must have delayed some of the huge volume of work for Boeing and British Aerospace to do this.

And then there was The Letter.

The background to all this is that right from the beginning of the project there has been a huge interest in the project from the Royal Air Force - which started when we started looking at Spey engines at RAF Wattisham at the time when the RAF decided to scrap their F4 fighters. These were unusual in that they were powered by the Rolls-Royce Spey 202 engines instead of the J-79. More and more help came from the RAF with people like Martyn Davidson, Steve Wiltshire, Jayne Millington (Andy's long suffering girlfriend), and Adam Northcote-Wright - but it was made quite clear to us that the arrangement could never be a formal one, and the helpers were doing so in their own time. Many of them put an enormous amount of personal time into the project, but family considerations began to cause difficulties and it soon became clear that only a few could give up their valuable holiday time to work on the project. This sort of sacrifice has made a huge contribution to the success of the project.

Over the last 12 months a number of senior RAF staff had visited the project as the word got around. Then last week I got The Letter - sent from Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard John, Chief of the Air Staff - I quote:

'Dear Mr Noble,

I have been following the Thrust Supersonic Car Project with interest and admiration. Although the Service has not been directly involved in this remarkable venture, I am proud that Royal Air Force Personnel, including Squadron Leader Andy Green, are key members of the team. The project is an outstanding example of the spirit of enterprise and adventure, and reflects the very best of British design and technical expertise. As you enter the final lap of this great challenge, may I offer you my own support and that of my Service.'

The letter continues for a further two paragraphs. It is a quite tremendous document to have particularly because it is a momentous decision and the text is quite clear and unambiguous. It also has a tremendous effect on would-be sponsors!

So now its back to fuel and money. Tomorrow we have the first of the Mach 1 days which are always great fun - particularly the auction of the discarded pieces of ThrustSSC. The idea is that the purchasers can beat The City (The City is the generic word for the City of London institutions which have the monopoly on stockmarket and capital). The idea is that Club members should buy genuine ThrustSSC parts now before Black Rock - and then sell them immediately after, aiming to achieve a multiple of 3 in 5 months. The sales are a riot and the prices amazing!

Even the new Labour Government is helping. The latest budget, some would say, has not been hard enough on personal taxation - so the inflation is likely to start again, which in turn means higher interest rates and a stronger pound. The two points on the exchange rate will mean substantial savings for us on our Dollar budget.

So you now know what is happening. We live incredibly exciting times and when you get the next report, we will either be riding high or struggling with the slough (Shakespeare: pronounced sluff) of despair!

In the meant time place your bets on Jeremy Davey's funding promotion!

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