How the world’s fastest driver uses his own ‘Green Screen’ to prepare

On October 15, 1997 Britain’s Andy Green became the first man to break the speed of sound on the ground, clocking an average 763mph over two timed miles in opposite directions at Nevada’s Black Rock Desert in Thrust SSC (Super Sonic Car). Green remains the world land speed record holder but he is not ready to slow down yet. Now into his fifties, he is collaborating with the Bloodhound SSC Project - currently engaged in a will-they-won't-they chase for funding - in a bid to pass the next big milestone: 1,000mph.
 
Wing Commander Green is used to such extreme speed from his day job as a fighter pilot – but the fundamental principle remains that people don’t kill themselves in the air; it’s the ground that does the damage. That’s why in any land speed record bid the load on the spinning wheels, which will reach 10,000rpm at full speed, is matched by the load on the spinning mind of the human inside.
 
‘Getting into the Zone fairly common for anyone who does high performance racing or flying,’ says Green in an interview for In The Zone. ‘The way your brain works at apparently abnormal speed is to remove uncertainty. For a Formula 1 driver, it’s about doing the same lap thousands of times. In flying you do enormous amounts of study, simulation and practice. It doesn’t happen on your first sortie, it happens when you’ve got a thousand hours.
 
‘The tricky bit for a land speed record driver is that the car may only run 50 times over the course of two years. So my practice will be very limited.’
 
Twenty years on from Green's record-breaking run, Bloodhound SSC ran in anger for the very first time at Newquay’s Cornwall Airport last October: ‘low-speed’ initial test runs up to 200mph. But with real-life physical preparation in such short supply ahead of the full-blown record attempt itself, Green has to settle for the next best thing: watching endless rehearsals in the comfort of his own imaginary movie theatre.
 
‘If you go to the cinema, when you haven’t read the script and don’t know the story, you’ve got to grasp all that the first time,’ he smiles. ‘Normally it’s the third time you watch a film that you start to see the details. I need to see them first time. So it’s about trying to see the film before you go into the cinema.
 
‘I’ll go through the profile in detail so I know it, including the specifics of when I’ll press each button. Years ahead I’m already visualising: “What will it be like? What can help me?” It’s picturing every aspect so when you get to the cinema the seat fits you, you’re sitting in a nice place and the popcorn is ready to go.’
 
The timed mile itself lasts a mere 3.5 seconds but that is just one part of a brutal two-minute acceleration and deceleration. During that time Green is not just holding on for grim life but monitoring a bewildering range of systems, any of which could suddenly destabilise the car. As he builds up speed, he must also build up his mental capacity to a point where time apparently runs slower than normal.
 
‘I need to break the run up almost second by second,’ adds Green. ‘That’s to see how it is constructed, work out what I need to do in each moment and minimise the things I don’t have to do. Do I have to watch the engine oil temperatures or all the pressure sensors? No, the car can monitor those and find out if there’s a problem. There might be a critical moment 15 seconds in when it becomes relevant but until then I can turn my attention elsewhere.
 
‘It’s all about working out a sequence so I appear to be doing 15 things at a time when I’m really doing one thing at a time, very quickly one after another…’
 
Read In The Zone to find out what happens when things go wrong (as they did when Green first broke through the speed of sound) plus why the project’s primary aim is to inspire the next generation of engineers… and learn how the whole Bloodhound SSC crew is in countdown mode towards their bid to take the record out of sight.