Hartlepool man's land speed record bid is right on track

Bosses on the Bloodhound project say a deal was signed last month for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) to become its prime sponsor and Official Automotive Partner in a three-year agreement.

The leading Chinese automotive group will provide technical as well as financial support to the project and promote its Inspirational Programme throughout Asia.

Bosses say the deal is the largest in the history of the project and means plans for challenging the World Land Speed Record in 2017 are now back on track.

The partnership will see Geely Auto technology being used within Bloodhound SSC; Geely Group vehicles being used in South Africa throughout record campaigns; design and engineering support being provided, where required, to help the Project achieve its goals; promotion of Bloodhound across Asia and the team’s STEM inspiration programme rolled out across China.

Project director Richard Noble said: “We could not have a better partner than Geely: not only are they an international technology company with tremendous vision and capability, they share our passion for innovation and education.

“Their support, both technical and financial, means we can now plan next year’s record-breaking challenge with confidence.

“It also means we can take our STEM inspiration message to a vast new audience, which is great for science and engineering but also for promoting Great Britain.”

The recent signing of major deals means the project now has sufficient funding pledged to complete the car and advance preparations for its first World Land Speed Record Campaign.

Bloodhound engineers are returning to the project, having taken short term contracts elsewhere; a major programme of work to become ‘race ready’ now begins in earnest.

Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said: “We are proud and excited to be part of this extraordinary team. Geely shares the same challenging spirit and passion for pushing technological barriers as the Bloodhound Project.

“Since day one we have been committed to breaking technology barriers at Geely, and working with Project Bloodhound will help further our mutual technology breakthrough to an international audience.”