Winner in BLOODHOUND SSC helmet design competition

PRESS RELEASE

In Supernova vol. 1.3, we featured the BLOODHOUND SSC, which will attempt to increase the World Land Speed Record by 31% to 1609km/h.

Dirk Coetzee, a 17 year old matriculant from Adamantia High School in Kimberley, has won the South African leg of a competition that challenged young artists to design a helmet for Wing Commander Andy Green, who will be driving the BLOODHOUND supersonic car.

“I love the bold and exciting South African theme of Dirk’s design, and the big sunrise and gemsbok adding a Northern Cape element,” Andy Green commented. “Superbly finished and proudly South African – it is perfect!”

The helmet design competition was used as an opportunity to get children – from South Africa and the UK – involved in the BLOODHOUND SSC Project as part of its education programme.

Dirk’s design will feature on one of the two helmets that Andy will wear during his attempts to break the current land speed record and reach up to 1610 km/h with the BLOODHOUND SSC at Hakskeenpan. The other design will come from the UK winner, 11 year old Sam James.

The competition attracted nearly 1000 entries, about half from the Northern Cape in South Africa and half from UK schools. The William Humphrey’s Art Gallery and the Northern Cape Department of Education also supported the competition, with the gallery’s outreach team visiting many schools to provide expert advice to learners who wished to enter the competition.

“When we start running BLOODHOUND, I will have two helmets available – on the basis that we should always have a spare for anything important!” Andy explains. “Of course the helmets don’t have to be painted the same, and with two different designs, this gave us a great chance for a competition.” The two winning designs are now with an expert helmet designer/painter from JLF Designs in the UK for application to Andy’s helmets.

The rules for the design were very simple, he says: “The colours had to be compatible with the BLOODHOUND Blue and BLOODHOUND Orange, the helmet needed to be identifiable as BLOODHOUND and it needed to identify me as the driver. There were a couple of other things that I didn’t include, as I wanted to see what they could work out for themselves. I was looking for bold, vibrant shapes, and two distinct national designs of some sort, one UK-themed and one South African. This was where the entrants could really show some flair.”

These learners from the Northern Cape also submitted designs that really impressed the judges. They were category winners or runners-up.

Winner Grade 4-6

The winner in this category was 11 year old Lindiwe Maganelo from Molehabangwe Primary School who submitted a clean and simple design which would work well in BLOODHOUND colours.

Winner Grade 7-9

Enrique van der Merwe from Postmasburg Primary School won this category with a simple and effective joining of UK and SA flags in BLOODHOUND colours.

Runner-up Grade 10-12

The runner-up in this category is 15 year old Mogomotsi Mandela from Adamantia High School who is also a learner at the Maths & Science Leadership Academy in Kimberley. While the colours were unusual, the design was exciting and very South African, influenced by a Kimberley diamond mine theme.

Overall runner-up

Yolanda Mtombeni from Kimberley Girls High School was the overall runner-up with her bold and vibrant design, with a real South African flavour.

Find out more about the BLOODHOUND SSC at www.bloodhoundssc.com