OCTOBER 20, 1997

Ron's sound barrier dreams go boom

MCLAREN's dreams of building the first car able to travel faster than the speed of sound evaporated last week when Richard Noble's Thrust SSC jet-car set the first supersonic world land speed record in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Thrust completed the necessary runs to create a new record of 763.04mph. Driver Andy Green beat his own 714mph land speed record, which he set three weeks ago in the same car.

MCLAREN's dreams of building the first car able to travel faster than the speed of sound evaporated last week when Richard Noble's Thrust SSC jet-car set the first supersonic world land speed record in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Thrust completed the necessary runs to create a new record of 763.04mph. Driver Andy Green beat his own 714mph land speed record, which he set three weeks ago in the same car.

McLaren announced back in December 1993 that it intended to build a car to rival Thrust and Dennis reckoned that his team could produce a car - called Maverick - capable of traveling at 850mph. The plan was for a two and a half year program involving a special company called McLaren Advanced Vehicles, headed by project director Bob Bell.

The project never took off and earlier this year Bell quit the team to work with Benetton in F1.