Design Overview

All fast vehicles at the concept stage have a few variables that need to be considered. As we are not going around a track or cornering, this is essentially ignored, but as we need to go as fast or faster than the current record, drag is your enemy and this in turn drives most of the available choices in a given design. Some do this by minimising the frontal and wetted areas of the design, but this tends to be drag producing over large areas of the car, whereas, we have chosen an approach that attempts to minimise the supersonic drag rise through shaping of the body and this tends to produce the type of shapes seen in the car as it stands today.

As above, the variables are relatively simple. It’s just the successful execution that is difficult. These variables are Drag, Downforce, Thrust, Mass, and Acceleration. Drag slows Acceleration and requires more Thrust, which tends to increase Mass. The only small positive from this is that Downforce is slightly moderated, but not in a meaningful way. Downforce is required largely to stay on the ground, but also to offset the lift produced by the air going over the body. The Thrust is largely a product of the drag at the speed that we wish to attain, but also constrained by the engines that are available for the project in the size that we require. Mass is largely driven by safety margins needed, the aerodynamic loads at these speeds and engine and fuel loads required. Acceleration is a product of all of the above. In reality, these simple variables are a giant jigsaw puzzle with no hard edges that we juggle to get the best possible mix of proportions, and these will determine whether we are successful or not.