Rainworth pupils go for the record books

But unlike the famed daredevil who broke both the land and water speed records in the 1960s, the youngsters at Joseph Whitaker School will be attempting to smash the world speed record for a rocket-powered model car.

The members of the young engineers club at the Warsop Lane school were less inspired by the Bluebird pilot, who lost his life in 1967 trying to retake the water speed record, than modern-day speed enthusiast Richard Noble, designer of the Bloodhound rocket car.

And after another school set the first land speed record for a model car in 2011, the budding engineers decided it was time to try and enter the record books.

The students have worked tirelessly on the project - pushing their own ‘Bloodhound’ model car to an incredible 460mph in recent tests - quicker than Campbell’s record-breaking land speed in 1964.

And on Saturday 4th October, the group will take three model cars - Redshift, Bloodhound and Insanity - to the Rolls Royce testing site in Hucknall to officially attempt the model car world record, currently set at 287mph.

Teacher Phil Worsley said: “We’re not just attempting to break this record – we’re hoping to lift the record by breaking it three times and to push the bar above 600mph.

‘We’ve got a lot of confidence in our launch on Saturday and feel that we can control these speeds. It’s been a year-long project and the students have worked incredibly hard to design a model that can achieve these speeds.

“We started with buying a simple rocket kit, building them and firing them into the sky – then developed our ideas from there.

‘We’ve had a few crashes but they have only inspired us to make a better, stronger car. We’ve incorporated carbon fibre, titanium wheels and Ammonium Pechlorate into the design, and they are now extremely powerful. We’re more than ready for the world record attempt on Saturday!’

PICTURED: Joseph Whitaker students with teacher Phil Worsley as they gear up for their world record attempt.