Car designed to outrun a bullet; THE FAST SHOW: Land speed record holder Andy aims to drive at 1,050mph.

Byline: By Mary Griffith

BRITAIN'S land speed recordholders have unveiled plans to smash their 760mph feat with the world's first 1,000mph car.

Faster than a speeding bullet, the pounds 12 million Bloodhound SSC is the brainchild of Richard Noble and Andy Green - the team behind current record-holder Thrust SSC.

Andy Green, a former fighter pilot who was born in Atherstone, north Warwickshire, will drive the car.

He revealed the plans at Coventry Transport Museum where the giant black and silver Thrust SSC takes pride of place.

He said: "The technology is just going to be extraordinary.

"The country's terribly short of engineers and that goes back to not being able to inspire kids at school with the sort of projects of yesteryear - the Spitfire, Harrier Jump Jet, Concorde, Apollo, all these magnificent projects.

"We saw an opportunity here to build an iconic engineering project and not only share it with everybody across the world through the internet but specifically with every school in the UK."

Crowds filled the streets to see Bloodhound's predecessor, Thrust SSC, paraded through Coventry city centre in December 1999 and again in August 2001 when the car was officially handed over to the city.

The new car could be built within a year, and a record attempted within three years.

Engineers have been working secretly for the past 18 months from an aircraft hangar in Bristol, assessing the risks and finding solutions.

Green, 46, said: "Does that make it zero risk? No.

"Is life with zero risk interesting?

No.

"This is worth taking the risk for because it's a huge challenge and a huge prize at the end of it - not just the biggest record, but to inspire the next generation of engineers."

Coventry Transport Museum declined to say whether or not it might display Bloodhound in the future. But the multi-millionpound project could spark a surge of visitors to the city.

Lucy Rumble, Transport Museum spokeswoman, said: "This is the only place you can see their previous projects on display.

"We have 333,000 people a year visiting the museum and people come from all over the world to see Thrust SSC. With a new land speed record attempt developing we hope there will be a renewed interest and more people will want to come and see."

FROM THRUST TO BLOODHOUND

Engineer Richard Noble, a former wallpaper salesman, reached 633mph in Thrust 2 in 1983.

In 1997 RAF pilot Andy Green reached 760mph in Thrust SSC (which stands for Super Sonic Car).

Bloodhound SSC will accelerate from zero to 60mph in just one second.

The team reckons it could reach 1,050mph... fast enough to overtake a bullet fired from a revolver.

At 1,000mph Andy Green will experience a force of two times his bodyweight and the blood will rush to his head.

CAPTION(S):

SUPER CAR... Driver and Wing Commander Andy Green at the London Science Museum for the launch of the Bloodhound SSC supercar designed to take the land speed record to more than 1,000mph.; FOR THE RECORD... Richard Noble is the brains behind Bloodhound.