McGlashan has two years to win world speed bid

Aussie speed merchant Roscoe McGlashan has a clear shot at becoming the fastest man on the planet by 2015, says the man who currently holds the title. Andy Green, who was first to break the sound barrier and currently holds the Land Speed Record at 1223km/h in ThrustSSC, says he would like to see the Perth-based battler finish his new car, then get the financial and logistical support to claim the crown.

He says McGlashan has two clear years before his next project, a British rocket-powered car called Bloodhound, is ready to fire up as teams from Australia, the UK and USA race to push past 1600km/h, or 1000mph on the old scale. "Roscoe has a two-year window to finish his development and get his car running. I would love to see him do that," Green tells Carsguide in Sydney. 

"He is now building another car. And, of all the competition out there, it is the most likely to set a record in the next two or three years."

McGlashan's car is called Aussie Invader 5R and is scheduled to have 62,000 pounds of thrust - around 200,000 horsepower or 147,000kW - from a liquid-oxygen rocket motor. If things go to plan, the nine-tonne monster will be able to accelerate to 1609km/h in just 20 seconds.

McGlashan broke the Australian speed record in 1995 in Aussie Invader II when he cracked 800km/h and he managed a one-way run at 1035km/h in 1996 in Aussie Invader III, although he did not complete the return run needed to verify a record.

"I've been to Perth to see Roscoe. He's a crazy man with a mission, and a track record of achieving things," Green says. "He came ever so close to setting the Land Speed Record back in 1996 or '97. The only reason he didn't get it late in '97 was because a Brit team had bumped it up from 1000km/h to 1200. So his timing was bad. "If he had been one year earlier, he would have been the fastest man on earth for that period."

Green is a supporter of McGlashan and says there is a marked contrast with the car he is working on, compared with the British and American efforts. "There are lots of different technical solutions. The extreme technology and sophistication solutions of ThrustSSC and Bloodhound are very much the UK automotiive solution, at one end of the scale.

"The other end of the scale is the Americans, who have taken the F104 jet fighter out of the scrapyard and cut the wings off. A little bit unsophistcated in places, and that leaves them with big technical problems. "Somewhere in between the two, building a bespoke car but using some very simple technical solutions, is where Roscoe sits. I would love to see him running that car and getting a record."

This reporter is on Twitter: @PaulWardGover