Man Hopes to Set New Land Speed Record of 2,000 MPH

Posted on Jan 24, 2021 in Racing | 1 comment

The Bloodhound SSC: Can it be beaten?

“Dad, did you know the fastest car ever went 2,300 miles per hour?”

These were the words of my 9-year-old son yesterday morning, as we were discussing the top speed of various supercars.

“I don’t think so — it seems like the current land speed record is somewhere around 700 miles an hour,” I replied.

“No,” he said, “A car went 2,300… but then it blew up.”

I don’t know where he got his facts, but the current land speed record is 763 mph, set by the Thrust SSC all the way back in 1997. A new vehicle, dubbed the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car and funded through various UK sources, plans to set a new record in 2013 by hitting 1,000 mph.

That’s slow, though, compared with what a California man has planned.

An interesting fact, and to put in perspective just how far the human race has advanced in 113 years: The very first guy to break a land speed record did so in 1899 at 41 miles per hour.

Waldo Stakes thinks he can hit 2,000 miles per hour.

Can Stakes, a general contractor who last attended college in 1974 and doesn’t have a computer in his shop, compete with the millions of dollars and brilliant scientists behind the Bloodhound SSC and manage to more than double the current land speed record? Read the story in Popular Mechanics and you’d be hard-pressed to not believe him.

While he may seem like a mad scientist tinkering in a garage too small for his dreams, Stakes has already acquired two XLR99 rocket engines to go along with his lifelong obsession with the land speed record. Those engines powered NASA’s X-15 experimental plane to 4,520 mph. That makes 2,000 seem perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it? Stakes said,

The Sonic Wind Land Speed Research Vehicle will be the premier land speed car and the most powerful car ever seen on the planet. Nothing being built in Australia or Great Britain or planned by any nation will be able to touch this car in its velocity. And its stability will be second to none.

After reading his story, I’m pulling for the guy. There’s no word on when he might be ready to fire up those rocket engines and go for the record, but when he does, let’s hope he doesn’t hit 2,300 mph and then explode.

That would severely hurt his car’s value on DealFinder.