In this issue ...
The two months from the Motor Show until Christmas were tough times, with G-Force, like the rest of the country, being badly hit by the flu- and I pushed off for a few days break at Christmas! Just as we were trying to get on a much delayed flight, my mobile rang in the middle of Heathrow Terminal. It was the sponsorship deal we had been fighting for, for months. ‘Richard, we want to talk to you!’ I explained that there were options. I could discontinue the holiday right then and be with them in a few hours, but there was a real chance of serious personal injury from my wife Sally, who puts up with a high risk lifestyle and tends to take holidays rather seriously! ‘Come and see us after Christmas- we promise not to sponsor anything else’. It was Margaret Thatcher who wrote that it’s always easy to start something but it requires a special determination to finish. This is exactly where we are; we have to finish Thrust SSC properly by Spring to be in with any kind of chance of beating Breedlove.
Refreshed from the break, we held the usual Saturday team meeting at Fontwell; Andy Green has got wise to these meetings, he and partner Jayne can be seen at the Happy Eater Restaurant filling up on a mammoth breakfast before the marathon. True to form the meeting started at 10am and finished at 5pm, running really well as we attacked all the impossibly difficult issues and came up with well argued and viable solutions. The team is pulling really strongly and doesn't seem to be phased by the sheer magnitude of what we have taken on.
Thrust SSC was still in many pieces, but at long last most of the subcontract work was nearly through, which meant that the problems were ours alone and not left with third parties who sometimes didn't share our determination and deadlines. The huge composite patterns had been delivered from Survirn a few days before. In order to save time and cost we had pioneered a new method, making the patterns from MDF Caberboard and then cutting them on Survirns 5-axis machines. Survirn had taken the brunt of this, cutting these huge patterns all December and it made a tremendous contribution to the project. God knows what it’s done to Survirns production schedules, but Norman Kench and Dave Houghton fought it through and you can read about it all in the December issue of Flight Magazine.
December also brought out some different problems. Craig Breedlove plans to run The Spirit of America at Edward’s Air Force Base in May. This means that he is going to be able to use the Shuttle Runway and run to high speeds. If we don't run on a desert before Black Rock, then with only UK runway experience we are going to appear like rookies as we try to tame Thrust SSC on the desert-its like driving on ice. Unlike Breedlove, who has Black Rock 7 hours up the road, we have chosen the wrong desertless place in which to be born ! Andrew Noble, my younger brother, used to drive the Thrust 2 transporter and knows all about deserts. During October he was in the US checking the size and bearing strength of every US and Mexican desert we could find. I phoned him up in France-‘we've got to get to Africa!’ Andrew took it well-grabbed the famous desert penetrometer (for measuring surface bearing strength)and disappeared to South Africa care of Alliance Airlines, Hertz and our friends in Castrol South Africa. The results were very good but we had a few more deserts to research before we could make a decision. We’ve now made our choice and let’s hope it’s the right one- the wrong one could cause the whole project to fail.
Back at Fontwell, it’s James Morton who has the unenviable task of pulling the completion of the car together. We have to keep the money flowing and find new sponsors, but it's James who has to pull the whole thing together, masterminding both the detail design and the project management- and somehow keep up the pressure when lesser people would have thrown up their hands, blown fuses or demanded secretaries or deputies. Within 48 hours of the meeting James had the entire workforce rescheduled, the work costed and began recruiting new staff. His figures reached me in London and once again I think- ‘How in God's name are we going to achieve that!’ But I'm getting used to it; we've done it before and we'll do it again. Result? - 16 people working full time at G Force!
Shortly after the meeting, Jerry Bliss and I sat down at yet another Happy Eater, this time in Essex not far from Ford's R&D site at Dunton where he works as a systems engineer. Ford had expressed an initial interest in the project and a willingness to help but the friendly giant simply couldn’t respond to the very tough and fast moving demands of this project. Jerry is one of life's really great characters and somehow manages to keep his sense of humour and fun when managing the huge Thrust SSC systems responsibility. As Ron Ayers says, 'the car is a research vehicle before it is a record breaker':, so to be sure of knowing what we are doing , the car has 140+ data channels and an active ride driven off the engine hydraulics. No more driving dangerously into the blue as we did with Thrust2. All this mass of wiring and systems is Jerry's world and it demands full time attention. Jerry thought over the problem, and then he just said: 'I'm leaving Ford- right now! And he did! We now have his full time attention.
In November Robin Richardson finally cracked the Internet team problem. Nick Chapman a Mach 1 Club Gold member who is software contracts manger for British Gas had written in with a generous offer of help, so he was brought together with Jeremy Davey from Texas Instruments and Graham Loader from Digital. It was quite clear from the first meeting that we had one hell of an Internet team and they immediately set a tremendous target- to rewrite and restructure the whole net site in one month. When you realise the amount of data on the Thrust site together with all the complex linkages, it’s is a huge task. It took a tremendous effort to achieve the objective, but the result speaks for itself and the site is far more comprehensible and easier to navigate, as well as being easier to update every two weeks. Its growing strongly at around 30,000 accesses per week!
Rolls-Royce are really getting into the swing of things, calling meetings and providing not just engine support but real engine leadership. Towards the end of January, we gave a presentation on the project to the entire Bristol workforce - a real pleasure because, like us, they work in small very highly motivated teams and they understand what we are up against. This is going to be a really good sponsorship.
Despite this excellent support, we still need more engine help. John Rowles and Greg Tallet are full time RAF, which means that their time with us is limited. So, I’d like to hear from you if your time is flexible and you have good Spey experience. Living south of London would be an advantage, but you must be ex Rolls-Royce or RAF with reheat Spey 202 experience. Sorry, but commercial applications of the Spey without reheat is not good enough. Send your CV to me if you fit the bill - we may just have the opportunity of a lifetime waiting for you!
We’re nearly there now and already thinking about the formal launch of the completed car prior to getting it running for the first time. With your help we’ve come a long way, but we can’t afford to relax for a minute. As always, we have other opportunities for you to help - opportunities that I’m sure you will respond to.
Richard Noble OBE
In return for a one-off payment of £25, we will reserve a numbered spot on the inside of one of the engine cowlings which you can personally sign by making your way to Fontwell for a special signing day. If you can’t make it for some reason (date to be advised), we can do it for you but we’re betting that most of you will want to do it yourselves.
We undertake to preserve your name on the cowling and provide a certificate showing the numbered location of your signature. We also undertake to contact you for resignature if the cowling has to be replaced at any time. So, what are you waiting for! Fill in the form attached now and ensure that your name rides with Andy Green as he takes Thrust SSC on the ride of a lifetime.
The response to the Club Open Days at Fontwell has been truly amazing with well over 1,000 of you having visited us to see the car under construction and listen to team presentations. With construction coming to and end, we will be moving to a new base, so this could be your last chance to visit Fontwell. Places are limited and 120 of the 400 places have already been allocated to those of you not lucky enough to get in on the last visit. The date is Sunday March 10 and don’t forget that you can bring one guest with you. There is no charge since this is covered by your membership. Obviously, we will give preference to those who have not already attended but if the response is as high as we expect it to be, we will try to squeeze in another date. Fill in the form attached straightaway and PLEASE send a clearly marked stamped addressed envelope for a speedy response.
All 54’ of Thrust SSC will be on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, England over the weekend of 20 & 21 April 1996, where members of the public will get to see the car for the first time and meet the team as we talk about the challenges we have faced to get it designed, financed and built, as well as the challenges that lie ahead as we take aim at the Sound Barrier. In fact, the very Roadshow that you see at Fontwell.
But did you know that Beaulieu is famous for being the location of the Castrol Land Speed Record exhibit featuring four significant cars used by former holders of Richard Nobles current crown. Situated on the south coast of England in the heart of the New Forest, the NMM is one of the world’s premier automobile museums and houses a mouth watering selection of cars and bikes from the dawn of motoring to the present day. We need your help to sell tickets (or maybe you want to come along yourself anyway) and to help you, here’s some information about the weekend.
The oldest LSR car on show is Malcolm Campbell’s 1925 Bluebird that first took him over 150mph on Pendine Sands, Wales. Bought from Sunbeam by a determined Campbell, the car was taken to its first record by Henry Segrave running as the 350hp Sunbeam. Segrave’s LSR efforts are also remembered by two other cars on display, the 1927 1,000hp Sunbeam that took him over 200mph for the first time on the beach at Daytona, and the beautiful 1929 Irving-Napier Golden Arrow, arguably the best looking LSR car of all time. Coming further up to date, the quartet is completed by Donald Campbell’s 1963 Bluebird Proteus that took him to 403.10mph on the atrocious conditions of Lake Eyre to claim a new mark, a mark that had already been beaten in controversial manner by one of the current supersonic protagonists, a youthful Craig Breedlove, with his first Spirit of America.
Prior to moving to its permanent home at the Coventry Museum of British Road Transport, the current record holder, Thrust 2, augmented this fantastic display for a while and even though that looked big and brutal compared to the other cars on display, they will all be dwarfed by the massive black form of Thrust SSC.
In an auditorium adjacent to the museum, the Thrust Roadshow takes place twice a day over the weekend. Afternoon shows are priced at £12 and include access to the museum and grounds ( usually £7.50 anyway). Evening tickets are £10, because while the motor museum is open, the palace grounds are closed.
So, if your friends, relatives or colleagues have been impressed by your
stories about the project, this is their chance to see things for
themselves.
Please get them to write straightaway to:
Thrust SSC Roadshow - Beaulieu,
As always, cheques drawn in pounds sterling only on a UK bank account and made out to: SSC Programme Ltd. PLEASE enclose a medium sized stamped addressed envelope for the tickets.
Castrol have been filming LSR footage almost since record breaking began, and as you would expect, they are making sure that the latest project supported by them is being equally well recorded. They have just produced an excellent full colour video lasting 25minutes all about ThrustSSC that is now on offer to Mach 1 Club members.
Entitled, The Roll Out, it briefly covers the early history of the LSR up to Richard Noble’s successful runs with Thrust 2, before moving on to the origin, design, research and build of Thrust SSC. Excerpts from the video footage you will have seen at Thrust Roadshows are used in conjunction with material not seen before, particularly the roll out of the car from Fontwell and its appearance at the Motor Show.
Also of great interest is coverage of Breedlove and McGlashan’s projects and an interview with Andy Green that includes a ride with him on the DERA simulator at 850mph!! Castrol have promised to produce other videos covering the later stages of the project, so this will be the first part of the complete ThrustSSC history. Details of how to order on the form below.
The club continues to grow and don’t forget that we are still asking you to recruit extra members. To show what can be done, a big thank you to Clive Summers who has so far signed up 12 additional members and has plans to run a small Thrust SSC merchandise shop. Well done Clive.
We are always astonished by the range of talents we uncover out there and very appreciate of the help you provide, so now we have a couple of further opportunities to get yourself involved. We have a permanent base in the UK which will be announced shortly. What we can say is that it’s ‘somewhere in the south of England and provides a hangar, offices and a runway in a secure environment - fantastic! Only problem is that the offices need a bit of refurbishment and repainting. If you do this as your trade, or even as a competent DIYer, we’d like to hear from volunteers. No pay, but plenty of fun and an important contribution towards the next stage of the project!!
And if you really want a challenge, what about this....! We will spend 5-6 weeks in May and June at our newly located LSR site (again details will be announced soon) getting up to serious speeds. The facilities are excellent with one exception, somebody who knows how to feed 20 or 30 hungry Brits who probably wouldn’t appreciate the local cooking. Are you free at this time? Have you got the experience? Can you get on well with others working under extreme pressure? If so, write and let us know why it should be you.
Name:............................Membership No........................ Address:.............................................................. ...................................................................... Post Code:...............................Tel No:......................
YES - I WANT MY NAME ON THRUST SSC WHEN IT RUNS
Please reserve a place on the inside of an engine cowling for me to sign
my name. I understand that you will be in touch regarding a special
‘signing day’.
I enclose a cheque for £25 payable to SSC Programme Ltd
CASTROL VIDEO OFFER (VHS/PAL format only).
Please send me .................... copies of the Castrol Thrust SSC video
I enclose a cheque for £............ (£15 each + £1.50 p&p, £5 outside UK) payable to
SSC Programme Ltd
BEAULIEU THRUST SSC WEEKEND
Please send tickets for the following dates/times:
Cost: Day = £12.00 per ticket Evening = £10.00 per ticket Saturday 20 April 1996 Day No of Tickets ....... Saturday 20 April 1996 Evening No of Tickets ....... Sunday 21 April 1996 Day No of Tickets ....... Sunday 21 April 1996 Evening No of Tickets .......
MACH 1 CLUB OPEN DAY - FONTWELL
I would like to attend the Open Day at Fontwell on Sunday 10 March 1996.
I will/will not be bringing a guest (one guest per member)
There is no charge for attending the Open Day, but please send an
A4 size STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE for confirmation and directions.
Alternatively. if you'd like to attend the Club Open day,
email me at
mch1club@chapm.demon.co.uk
I will confirm and send directions by email.
 |
 |
 |
||
| Sponsored by | This site best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 | |||
 |
 |
 |
||