| Date: | 26th July 1997 |
| Location: | P8 Shed, DRA, Farnborough |
| Time: | lunchtime! |
| Occasion: | Gold Card members lunch |
When I went to the “Gold Card Lunch” on the 26th July and a rather shifty looking John Lovatt mumbled something about “getting stuffed” I assumed, as I presume most of us would, that this was a reference to the food.
As it turned out, he had something else in mind. Something to do with a small quantity of envelopes that needed stuffing…….
But I digress. The real reason for the day was to have a last look at the car before it sets off across the pond for its head to head with the noise abatement society. Sorry, what I meant to say was Craig Breedlove and the record books
Those of you who are a little houseproud would probably have a bit of a problem with the SSC at the moment. Despite the best efforts of the team, almost every surface of the car - inside and out - is coated in pink Jordanian dust. You just can’t get decent cleaners these days! Actually, I’m told that the stuff is finer than face powder so you don’t really stand much of a chance with it – it finds its way into everything!
It is quite useful to visitors, however, as it makes it easier to see which bits the team have been tinkering with. They are the clean ones! The beefed up rear suspension brackets are a good example. Some nice shiny bits in the middle of a nest of pink tubing. I was extremely impressed with the welding on them. The quality is something I doubt many people could achieve.
If the car repays the team for half the care and attention they have put into it then I think there won’t be any problem with taking the records.
And yes, I think the new brackets should do the job!
The other thing that was new to me was the new Mach 1 Club logo on the nose. I was a bit sceptical when I saw it in black and white in a newsletter but, I have to admit, the coloured version looks really good on the nose of the car.
Apart from the obvious one of breaking the sound barrier or my personal one of persuading someone to let me have a drive in the SSC, I think the biggest challenge left is to take a photograph of the car from a viewpoint that no one has thought of before. There were people on some steps that some kind soul had left in front of the car to give a better viewpoint of the new logo. They were crawling around on the floor. They were hanging from the stairs in the building. You name it, they were there. About the only thing they couldn’t hang from was the overhead crane and that was only because someone had dangled the video screen from it.
And just when you thought you were safe from the photographers, you spot the never-sleeping eye of the “web cam” peering down at you from its perch amongst the rafters, ready to reveal any little indiscretions to the electronic world.
On the new merchandise front, I can highly recommend the large-scale model of the SSC. That is if you have the odd £1000 pounds burning a hole in your pocket. The detailing (as you would expect) is superb but I won’t bother to try to describe it as it has to be seen! The only drawback is that you will probably need to have an extension added to the mantelpiece to accommodate it. Mind you, if you are a sponsor, it would look really good in your reception area! Personally, I’m hoping for a slightly more affordable Airfix kit to be produced.
After an excellent lunch - and not an outside caterer to be seen - we had a status report on the project, which will be out of date already. See elsewhere on the web site for current details! The only thing you won’t find is the video of the Andy-Green-eye- view of driving the car complete with amusing dialogue!
I think I can now see why Richard Noble decided not to be the driver of this car. With all the stress of the last month, I thought he was looking just a little bit tired. Just keep it going for another month, Richard, and you can sit back and watch the others prove themselves!
And lastly, there were those envelopes that needed stuffing.
You should have had the product of our labours by now - Issue 7 of the Mach 1 news. One brochure and a couple of pieces of paper to be put in envelopes. Easy!
Only, I had not quite appreciated just how big the Mach 1 Club is until I saw how many envelopes there were. In the end, I think there were probably thirty of us scattered around the tables in the hangar, each with a heap that you could hardly see over.
I like to think that most of the club members are people like me who joined, not so much for what they could get out of the Club but more for the desire to be part, however small, of such a unique (British!) project. It is a real privilege to be given the opportunity to participate in such a direct manner. And thank you to Richard for having the determination to bring the project to where it is now and letting us join him in it.
Well, enough of this chatter. I’m off to raid the piggy bank in the hopes that it contains enough to allow me to go to Black Rock for “The Big One.” Hopefully, my next submission will be from there.
Watch this space!
As always we are more than happy to publish articles by the Daily Telegraph Mach 1 Club members on or related to Thrust SSC. Please send your articles to mach.one.club@battlement.digital.co.uk
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