The land speed record

The Herald reports:

A New Zealand entrepreneur wants to build the fastest car in the world. But now the hard work starts – raising $30 million to make it roll.

Jetblack is the brainchild of Wellington residential property developer Richard Nowland and has the support of the government-owned Industrial Research, which says it is contributing expertise and staff time.

A fibreglass replica of the 13m black vehicle was unveiled at the Cloud in Auckland as part of the effort by NZ2011 to show off local design and technology.

The land speed record stands at 1227km/h and Nowland hopes to break it in the rocket-powered vehicle within five years. Its power will come from two California-built hybrid rockets similar to those used on Virgin Galactic’s passenger spacecraft.

Good luck to him. It is hard to imagine travelling that fast on land. 1227 km/hr means every second you would travel around 341 metres. This is just below the speed of sound.