PressOn wraps world’s fastest racing car

Wide-format specialist PressOn has wrapped the body and tail fin of the world land speed record attempt car Bloodhound SSC.

The car, which has cost £13.5m and taken eight years to develop, was unveiled in Canary Wharf on 24 September and shown for the first time in its record-attempt configuration.

Bloodhound SSC, which is claimed to be the world’s fastest and most advanced racing car, has been designed to travel faster than the speed of sound, and to speeds of over 1,000mph. 

Chatham, Kent-based PressOn wrapped the body and tail fin of Bloodhound in vinyl for the event.

PressOn managing director Nigel Webster said: “To be asked to be involved in the world debut of Bloodhound was an incredible honour.

“Fespa put us forward to do this because of our work wrapping unusual things like the 'dazzle' ship. We went down to Bloodhound's Technical Centre in Bristol, where the car was being built, and met with part of the Bloodhound team and agreed to help them out.

“It was the first time that the car was going to be shown to the general public and the press and they needed it to be wrapped.

“The nose cone was already painted and we managed to match the colours of that with coloured vinyl that we had taken down with us so we only then had to print things like the sponsor logos and the Union Jack on the tail fin.”

PressOn used its HP Latex 3500 for the print job and and its Kongsberg iXP24 digital cutting table to cut the graphics to size. Two staff completed the wrap over a period of two days.

“The opportunity to work with the collaborators on the Bloodhound project is an unforgettable experience. It’s definitely one of PressOn’s highlights,” said Webster.

“For some of the guys that had worked on this car since 2008 it had been the first time they'd seen it as a car rather than bare metal. They were starting to see their dream coming into fruition and a couple of them were quite moved by it.”

Bloodhound is 13.5m long and uses jet and rocket motors to produce around 135,000hp thrust. The 2m-high tail fin provides stability at high speed and was in place for the first time at the debut last month.

On 15 October 2016 Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green will drive Bloodhound in Haskeen Pan, South Africa, in an attempt to break the current world land speed record. Green also set the previous world land speed record of 763mph in 1997 in Thrust SSC.

Webster and Andy Wilson established PressOn in 2000 and the firm now employs 26 staff and has a turnover of around £3m.

The business, which moved to larger premises earlier this year to accommodate business expansion, has also completed projects in the past few years for Paultons Park, American Apparel, Crossrail, The Ritz London and Kingston University.

The firm has also recently printed an award-winning shopping centre campaign for Limited Space Media Group.