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The Cars
Posted by : Ray Wakefield - Date: 12 Dec 2003 at 10:44

The Cars

Bluebird-Vampire.

Running under the name Vampire, this is the fastest car ever to be run on British soil. It holds the British Land Speed Record at 300.3 m.p.h. (483.286 kph), which is almost 95kph above the current South African Record of 388.538 kph, held by Grant van Schalkwyk in 'Spirit of Dunlop'.

Powered by a Rolls-Royce Orpheus jet engine, complete with afterburner, it has been timed to accelerate from rest to 320 kph in four seconds. By comparison, a Grand Prix car takes eighteen seconds to reach that speed. It is a well tried and tested vehicle, having completed over three thousand runs at record attempts, drag meetings, and motoring festivals of many kinds in Great Britain and throughout Europe .

It has in fact never run to its true top speed as there are no airfield runways in England long enough to accommodate this in safety, but it is calculated to have a maximum speed of between 330 and 350 mph (530 - 563kph.).

With the seventeen kilometres of track offered by Verneuk pan it is expected to have ample room to extend itself, and a new South African Record at or in excess of 500 kph is possible with this car.

Vampire - the British Land Speed Record Holder at rest.

E=motion

This streamlined projectile has been built over the past three years using the most up to date technology in stored electrical energy. Powered by a bank of orbital batteries, e=motion delivers its power to the wheels via a 700 hp electric motor which has been calculated by two independent bodies to give a top it a speed in excess of 489 kph. During trials it broke the British Land Speed record for electrically powered vehicles with only a minimal run up into the timing trap. The batteries and motor assembly didn't even get warm during this run, despite the vehicle being on 'ultimate' i.e. 480 kph+ ,gearing.

Mark with e=motion after its successful attack on the British Electric Land Speed Record.