Noble - Thrust

Thrust is the story of the first "car" to break the sound barrier in raising the World Land Speed Record, written by 4wd.sofcom.com --> the team leader Richard Noble and motorsport journalist David Tremayne, with contributions from the driver Andy Green, the designers, and other team members.

Briton Richard Noble drove his jet car Thrust II to a world land speed record of 633.468mph at Black Rock Desert in 1983. In doing so, he probably narrowly avoided killing himself when the front of the car became dangerously light at speed, although this was not realised at the time. Later, when it came to mount an attempt to raise the record above the speed of sound, with Thrust SSC (supersonic car), he left the driving to British fighter pilot Andy Green and had to suffer all the anxiety of watching 4wd.sofcom.com --> someone else risk his life. Without that decision it is unlikely that the money would have (just) been raised for the campaign, and the team held together. But the money was (just) raised, even if after the fact, it did all hold together in 1997, the record was raised to 763.035mph, 1221km/h, Mach 1.0175, and the shock wave spread out across the desert. The rest, as they say . . .

A significant part of the book is of the story behind the scenes, to finance, design, test, modify and run a supersonic car, on a shoe-string budget. And in between setting the Thrust II and Thrust SSC records, Noble worked on a light aircraft (the ARV Super-2), Atlantic Sprinter (a trans-Atlantic, Blue Riband contender that did not go ahead), and a promotions company.

Thrust SSC is of course quite unlike anything on the road - two Rolls Royce Spey 202 jet engines, as in RAF F4 Phantoms, four solid alloy wheels, the front wheels wide set, the rear wheels close together, staggered and steerable, and an active suspension system that changed the pitch angle to keep 4wd.sofcom.com --> the right load on the front wheels. Ron Ayers penned the layout which allowed for the centre of gravity to be well forward, with wide-set front wheels for stability. Glynne Bowsher's rear wheel steering was controversial, and a `Mini' was converted to test the concept (at 90mph, about 1/8 of Thrust SSC's eventual speed).

The book has 320 pages and many colour photographs. It is definitely a ripping yarn.

2001 June: Thrust SSC was bought for the Museum of British Road Transport, Coventry, England.

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Note that the speed of sound depends on air temperature and pressure