Silverstone Study Centre Blog

We started the day, by researching the auction at Silverstone and the Bloodhound SSC . We then went to a conference where the Bloodhound was displayed. While we were there, we interviewed the Chief Engineer, Brian Coombs about the car. We then went to the car auction were two of Ayrton Senna’s cars were being sold. Next, we wet to the champions podium, then we came back and wrote our articles:

Bloodhound Smells Success

The Bloodhound SSC is currently at the International Media Centre at Silverstone Circuit, along with the fastest men on Earth, Andy Green and Richard Noble for an MIA dinner on 15^th May. The dinner was a chance for people to interview the drivers and take a look at the Bloodhound SSC.

The BloodhoundSSC can reach 1000mph in 40 seconds and then slow to 0 in the same time. Chief Engineer, Brian Coombs, said “It is harder to get the car from 1000-0 than 0-1000 and very important that it takes the same amount of time to slow down as it does to accelerate.”

The team responsible for Bloodhound, are aiming to not only beat the current land speed record, but to reach 1000mph, at the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa.

The cars driver, Andy Green, is concerned about how to stop a 1000-mile an hour car in the distance left, “the thing about setting a Land Speed Record is that speeding up is only half of the problem.  Once you’ve gone flashing through the timing lights of the measured mile at over 1000 mph you are faced with stopping a heavy, very high speed vehicle in a limited distance (about 5.5 miles on our chosen track on Hakskeen Pan in South Africa).  5.5 miles sounds like a long way, but if you’re doing a mile every 3.5 seconds, it doesn’t seem that far at all!”

The car will be slowed down by air brakes on the sides of the car with backup parachutes should there be a technical problem. Once the car has slowed down enough, commercial wheel brakes will kick in and stop the car.

By Sam Downhill

We arrived at Silverstone, myself and three other students, and we were introduced to the members of staff. We started the day with an introduction to what we would be doing today which was journalism , and were given time to research the topic we would be reporting on: the Ayrton Senna auction, the Bloodhound  SSC, the Silverstone challenge.

We started off at the Bloodhound conference which we were able to ask the chief engineer called Brian Coombs questions to discover more about the car. We were also able to see a replica of the car which was very interesting. I learned a lot about the car especially considering that i didn’t even know the car existed beforehand.

After that we visited the champion’s podium where the winners would be to spray champagne and recieve their trophies. It was exciting becuase we were standing where all the winner like Jenson Button would have stood.

This is my newspaper article:

Silverstone Sells Senna Super Car!

On May 16th   two of the late Ayrton Senna’s racing cars are going for auction at Silverstone along with other cars such as the 1977 Maserati Merak. It includes a range of cars; classic, modern, and motorcycles.

The auction includes many cars but the most iconic are the Senna cars which include: 1984 Toleman TG- 184-2 which was the first car he drove in Formula 1. The price its estimated to be bought at is yet to be confirmed, the other car is 1982 Ralt RT3 Formula 3 which he drove to first place at Thruxen circuit is it estimated to sell at £110,000 to £125,000.

Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian racing driver who was widely regarded as the best F1 driver of all time. He sadly died during a race in Italy since then certain measures have been ensured in order to prevent an incident like that happening again. In total he has won 41 races.

The auction sells a range of cars from old to new for example the 2011 Mclaren MP4 estimated at 160,000 and the 1969 Austin Mini 7,500 to 10,000. These cars are sure to sell to vehicle enthusiasts and collectors.

In addition to cars the auction also includes automobilia such as signed photos from people like Michael Schumacher, assorted artworks, Limited edition Grand Prix medals.

The auction for automobilia starts at 12 am and the auction for automobiles starts at 2pm. It is unknown how much the cars will sell for but what we do know is that the legendary Senna cars will not disappoint.

By Jessica Dillon

As we arrived at Silverstone, now just starting off as budding journalists, we started our research on the most fantastic cars of all time, including the great Bloodhound, known to become the fastest car of all time!

As we moved to the large, new building, holding the great designs of the Bloodhound, I noticed what the building was trying to portray – Silver and grey, almost like a large car symbolising whats inside.

I learned many things about the great Bloodhound racing car, and i noticed how much effort that was put in to make the car a great success, able to inspire the younger generation of engineers.

One engineer said “it will take up to seven or eight years to complete the car – so a very long time!”

I deffinately enjoyed the auction the most, i found it very interesting looking at all the old cars and learning about their specific details.

Some of them were very beautiful, with large glossy frames, and neat leather bound seats. it was intersting listening to people talk about  the cars they wished to have when they were boys, so it really does show the history of the cars.

Here is my article on the Silverstone Auction:

The Need for Speed: Some of the greatest cars of all time!

Although this great auction is selling a large range of beautiful, old cars, the two cars we all known people came to see are the Ayrton Senna Toleman car and the Ayrton Senna formula 3 car.

Such cars as these cannot be denied by any person who has a great interest in cars – especially cars with a famous, historic background such as these two.

The Ayrton Senna cars were named after a triple world champion racer, known to be the one of the fastest racers of all time.

Senna was described as “enthusiastic and dangerous, just like the today racer Louis Hamilton” by an expert at the event.

The Ayrton Senna Toleman car was first raced during Senna’s first formula 1 (where he scored second place against his huge rival Alain Prost) in 1984.

Senna raced for only around 10 years in formula 1, as his career never bloomed or finished because of his unnatural death in a wild race for the grand prix.

This death is still known to be the tragic story of the defeat of a young man’s courageous dreams.

This untimely death was said to occur because of the lack of safety precautions, as soon after the death of Senna, another person died on the same circuit during a race.

These incidents caused circuits all over the country to improve themselves with heavy safety measures, protecting their racers from anything that could arise in the future.

The Ayrton Senna Toleman was said to be the car that would show Senna’s talents to the highest ability, although I do not know of the car he was driving during the accident.

Now, once a car that would drive a great racer to victory, is now just a car for sale, becoming part of an ordinary life.

By Emily Smith

I started off the day researching about the topics we would be reporting on later in the day. once we had been introduced to the staff we set off to see the bloodhound project, were there was a conference involving Andy Green and Richard Noble the two fastest human beings in the world! We interviewed one of the head engineers Brian Coombs and he was happy to answer our questions. Just before lunch we headed down to the Senna auction to see the cars that were up for auction. I enjoyed learning about the Bloodhound SSC (the worlds fastest car) it is capable of reaching speeds of 1000mph! The world record attempt will be held in 8 years in South Africa. Overall I have enjoyed the day and I think it went well. This is my article…

Bloodhound thirsty for speed

The Bloodhound project at Silverstone has been launched. The Bloodhound is a jet car attempting to break the land speed record! The project has started, but has been estimated to take another eight years to finish. The reason behind this project is to prove that it is achievable; we spoke to one of the engineers of the bloodhound, Brian Coombs, he said, “we want to inspire the next generation of engineers”.

The project manager is the second fastest man in the world, Richard Nobel, who held the land speed record in 1973. The current land speed record is 768mph and is held by Andy Green. The driver of the Bloodhound will be Andy Green attempting to break his own record, and reach speeds of 1000mph. The world record attempt will be held in South Africa across the Hansen plains, because that could possibly be the flattest natural surface on the face of the earth.

The whole car is 7 meters long and is built up of different parts. The cockpit is nicknamed the ‘safety shell’, because it is the safest part on the car. The shell is made up of carbon fibre. It weighs 6 tonnes without fuel; it needs 1 and a half tonnes of rocket fuel. It takes 3 F1 engines just to feed the fuel through to the main rocket engine!

Cosworth motors, based in Northampton is one of the sponsors for Bloodhound, and I think I speak for the whole of Northampton when I say we are honoured to be a part of the Bloodhound project.

Liam Cook

Today two other students and I visited Silverstone Study centre to have a chance to learn about photography. We visited most areas of the Silverstone track to take pictures of things that were iconic to Silverstone. Firstly we went to the new wing and looked at the track and the podium room and podium. Next we went to the Garage/Mechanics Area and had a chance to look at the the cars and where they were fixed, we also took lots of pictures. Finally we went to the Heritage Pits where we saw people preparing to race, and the pit-stops. After we had taken lots of pictures we had to choose 3 photos to edit on the program ‘I-photo’, on the Apple Macs, we then put 2 photos on Comic-life where we explained why we chose those photos and what we did to edit them.:)

Tilly Long.

Tilly