This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

19th February 2014 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

World Land Speed Record Holder visits Brunei

Imagine a car that can go at over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) per hour. In one blink of the eye, the car can go 150 metres. In one second, the distance of four and a half football pitches.

Well, imagination seemed to come much closer to reality when the British High Commission hosted a visit to Brunei by RAF Wing Commander Andy Green. He has a pretty exciting enough day job as a fighter pilot. He is also the current land speed holder. But he is now involved with the amazing UK Bloodhound project, which is building a car to break the 1,000 mph barrier on a specially built track in South Africa in 2015/16.

The Bloodhound Supersonic Car
The Bloodhound Supersonic Car weighs over 7 tonnes and the engines produce more than 135,000 horsepower – more than 6 times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together

During his three day visit to Brunei, Andy spoke to UBD, ITB and schools in Bandar Seri Begawan, Seria and Kuala Belait.

Students raising their hands to ask Andy questions at Panaga School
Students raising their hands to ask Andy questions during the Q&A session at Panaga School
Andy giving his first presentation to students from technical educational institutions at ITB
Andy giving a presentation to students from technical educational institutions at ITB

Youngsters were able to try out a simulator, to pit their skills against Andy’s.

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Bloodhound’s educational focus aims to inspire students all over the world to study science. Andy explained why the UK is the obvious location to build this amazing new car. We are home to most Formula 1 engineering teams and we have world beating aircraft engine technology. British universities are involved too in different aspects of the project, ranging from supercomputing to testing jet propulsion.

Andy with students from ITB
Andy with students from ITB

There’s plenty of free material available on the Bloodhound SSC website. Some great videos too on the Bloodhound SSC YouTube page. Andy’s test runs and world record attempt will be video streamed live. You can even sign up on the website to have your name printed on the car!

More photos from Andy Green’s visit to Brunei can be found here.