Administration sees Bloodhound 1,000mph car hit the brakes

Consulting firm FRP Advisory has been appointed to oversee the administration of the organisation behind the Bloodhound turbo-car. The project to break the world land-speed record stalled after a £25 million investment shortfall saw it unable to complete the car’s construction.

Bloodhound is a supersonic vehicle built to race at more than 1,000 miles per hour. Using the same jet technology which powers the Eurofighter-Typhoon, it is acknowledged as the most sophisticated land speed record car ever conceived.

With a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter jet engine bolted to a rocket, once it got going, it would likely smash the existing world record of 763 miles per hour by some distance, while computer simulations have also indicated that it ought to be capable of going even faster still. Despite R&D being complete and production on the vehicle itself nearing completion, however, the project has hit a major roadblock, as it needs a £25 million shot in the arm if it is to finally take to its track on a dried-out lakebed in South Africa.

Without the funds, the project faces being wound up in the coming weeks. To that end, administrators have been appointed from FRP Advisory, in a bid to bail out the organisation and match it to a suitable buyer. FRP Advisory is reported to have already begun to talk to potential suitors, while hoping to hear from others soon.

Explaining the situation, Andrew Sheridan from FRP Advisory’s Bristol office, told the BBC, "We have a legal entity that has gone into administration because it hasn't got any more cash. But there is a project there that is very much alive and on the cusp of delivering its goal, which is ground-breaking with leading technology. However, it does need circa £25 million to get it over the line, and that now requires an investor, be that a wealthy individual or a corporate of some kind.”

The last three years have been an especially tough environment in which to raise financial support for projects such as this. With British markets still mired in uncertainty thanks to the unknown quantity of Brexit, many large brands that might once have been keen to get their name on the side of Bloodhound to build awareness are now using other cheaper marketing tools, such as social media. By going into administration, Bloodhound Programme, the company behind Project Bloodhound, gets some breathing space to allow it to find a solution to this.