As is the way with major challenges such as this, those who originally stake their claim to the ultimate prize sometimes don’t make it through to the end. Although they still insist that their project has not been cancelled, McLaren’s effort has come to nought while Art Arfons shows no signs of getting Green Monster off the trailer just yet. Rosco McGlashan is still hard at work getting a heavily revised Aussie Invader ready for a shot at the existing record and while almost everybody else says otherwise, Rosco believes it has supersonic potential. This contrasts with the American Eagle team who say that while 700mph is possible for their challenger, the lessons learnt from it would have to be incorporated into a new design before taking a shot at the Sound Barrier.
All of which leaves Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America as the only serious threat to ThrustSSC’s supersonic title ambitions. Craig has secured a major sponsorship deal with oil company Shell with staged payments linked to project progress. What this means is that the destiny of Spirit of America is now in their own hands. Recently, Richard Noble visited Craig and his team and this is what he found.
Before the meetings in Gerlach and Reno, Andrew Noble and I visited Craig Breedlove and the Spirit Team at their base in Rio Vista. The car is substantially complete and they had just completed their first engine runs. They claim to have 22,000 lbs of static thrust, although the tests had to be stopped when they discovered some minor intake duct problems. When we got there the Spirit was in pieces. This typifies the LSR struggle - building an LSR car is not like building a piece of art - the vehicle has to work well - and no one is likely to achieve that first time with what is essentially a prototype. Like ThrustSSC, SOA has been designed to be stripped down and reassembled in a very few hours - and that’s how real LSR progress is made - with workshop time being almost as important as track performance. By the time you read this they will have completed the next set of engine tests and will be well into painting. The next time we see them will likely be September this year for our head-to- head.
There is also a fine trucking dimension to all this. Breedlove has a huge Peterbilt truck rig being prepared which will carry the Spirit of America on a hoist inside the truck - with a rearward extending jib for picking up the car off the desert. Another of his sponsors is decorating 50 of their huge rigs with Spirit of America livery and graphics - which will generate huge interest on the highways across the US. Plane Trucking holds the ThrustSSC trucking rights and George Swindell has already bought the trailer which is being built by Tilt Techniek into an arrangement which gives us a ramp access off the desert as well as fitting in the Heavylift Antonov 124. Since ThrustSSC is 12ft wide and 54ft long all this is going to look mighty impressive. I must admit that there are times when I find myself wishing that we had a main sponsor like Shell who are committed to funding on a stage payments basis. But on the other hand ThrustSSC exists by being fiercely independent and has the huge resource of 158 very determined sponsors. We are now going to see which is the better arrangement as the pressure builds.
We were very well looked after by Craig, wife Marilyn and crew chief Alex Prosser and we much enjoyed seeing them all again and comparing the next chapter of struggles. Interestingly the stories are very similar and usually involve the sponsors that got away and technical opportunities - the technical troubles come later! Interestingly, whilst Breedlove started build in 1992 and we in June 1994 we are now just 2 months behind. The question is by 10th September when we start at the Black Rock Desert, will we still be behind?
 |
 |
 |
||
| Sponsored by | This site best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 | |||
 |
 |
 |
||