Bulletproof car hopes to blast through records and sound barrier at 1,000mph

British project will be powered by jets and rockets as it speeds through the desert faster than a bullet

The car is displayed at Downing Street, when the team visited David Cameron to demonstrate the new project (Andrew Griffin)

A British car hopes to break the landspeed record by shooting through the desert at over 1,000mph — and it’s body has to be made bulletproof to withstand the huge impacts it will undergo as it races along.

To ensure that it can withstand such hits, the team behind the project have fired projectiles at the panels on the car. By ensuring that the panels are essentially bullet-proof, they can make sure that they are pebble-proof, too — and at such speeds, they are much the same thing.

The panels will protect the car’s driver, Andy Green, as he drives the car through the desert where the car will be tested.

The team behind the car hope that it will be able to beat the 763mph record, which was set by Thrust SSC in 1997. When it did so, it became the first car to break the sound barrier.