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Bloodhound SSC fires up Rolls-Royce jet engine for land speed record

RAF ST MAWGAN, England — Fizz, whirr, shriek, pop and silence ... It took several attempts to get the Bloodhound land speed record contender started for the first time on Sept. 28. On a bright and blustery day at RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall, in southwest England, the sense of occasion was palpable, if only the damn jet engine's blades would fire up. But the Rolls-Royce 20,232-pound-thrust turbofan wasn't going to give up its virgin status as a car engine easily. As driver, RAF pilot and current land speed record-holder Andy Green explained, the Rolls EJ200 is one of the most reliable military jet engines ever, but it's never been used before in a car. "I can show you figures of its incredible reliability," he said, "but every bit of its control software expects it to be in a Typhoon [fighter aircraft], and we have to keep telling it that it is in an aircraft, which needs some quick-footed work on the software." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Quick-footed indeed, as right there on the RAF St Mawgan runway, without a pizza or a Coca-Cola in sight, software engineer Joe Holdsworth performed a virtuoso piece of recoding on the engine's software to persuade it not to shut down in alarm at some low-level electrical interference it simply doesn't see in its normal aeronautical environment. Then, with just 20 minutes left of the team's running permission window, the remote jet starter cart shrieked, its air-delivery pipe bulged like an elephant's trunk blocked with a coconut and the massive turbofan spun, popped, emitted a polite ball of flame and smoked into life. No cheers or high-fives here; this is after all a British team. But there was clear delight from the 20 engineers attendant on Bloodhound. After three successful starts, Wing Commander Green leapt from the cockpit and Mark Chapman, chief engineer, pronounced that he was well satisfied and that the sight of a jet car surging gently against its arrestor cable and wheel chocks was awesome. "We knew it was going to take a couple of starts to get it running," said Chapman, who explained why the engine appeared so smoky at first. "This is an inhibited engine, so it was tested a couple of months ago at Rolls-Royce and basically filled with corrosion inhibitor, and you've got to blow that all through at the start.

Rolls-Royce starts a turf war in the Garden of Wraith

The Rolls-Royce Wraith would not be our first choice for hooning. Sure, it's god 624 horsepower channeled to the rear wheels, but it's an automatic, it costs the better part of $300,000 and it's laden with more leather, wood and carpeting than Harrod's. Leave it to Tax the Rich to toss it around then.
For those unfamiliar, the YouTube channel sporadically features videos of some of the most powerful and expensive pieces of automotive machinery being put up to no good. They've done the Ferrari 288 GTO, F50 (two of 'em, in fact) and Enzo and even the Jaguar XJ220 - twice - but now they've turned their attention to the most powerful Rolls ever, tossing it around the grounds of an old-world mansion estate like it was a Subie.

Rolls-Royce Wraith looks rad in red [UPDATE]

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post called this car the "St. James Edition," which is incorrect. It's not a full-on special edition, rather a bespoke color. And an awesome one, at that. Of all the cars that would look right in red, and of all the colors you could specify for a new Rolls-Royce, ordering up a bright scarlet Wraith might not seem like the first choice to many. Fortunately there are plenty of other options available in the Rolls-Royce catalog. But for those who disagree, the British luxury automaker offers St. James Red, the bespoke color seen here. The color is offset by chrome brightwork on the grille, window frames, and door handles. The wheels are done up in a two-tone silver and gloss black, while the interior is swathed in what we're sure is only the softest, most supple black leather known to man. Of course, since it's a Wraith, there's power to match that racy exterior. This coupe is, after all, the most powerful vehicle Rolls-Royce has ever offered, packing a 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12 with 624 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, propelling over 5,000 pounds of luxury to 60 in a scant 4.4 seconds. More than adequate, indeed. If there was ever a Rolls that could get away with the bright red approach, surely it's the Wraith.