The title of fastest in the world has a nice ring of it.  Whether its natural super-humans like Michael Phelps in the water or Usain Bolt on land, or top pilots in the sky or drivers on the ground, mankind has always had a thirst for speed.

None know this thirst better, perhaps, than ace pilot Andy Green, a member of Britain's Royal Air Force.  When he's not behind the controls of ultra-expensive fighter jets he devotes time to his real passion: speed.  Green holds the record of piloting the fastest land vehicle ever, set with him at the helm of the rocket-powered Thrust SSC, which reached 763 MPH on a dusty desert track one day in October 1997.  You might think such accomplishments would yield a measure of satisfaction -- but Green is not satisfied.

He and a team of top engineers are working together to design the next generation of supercar, which he hopes will about 33 percent faster than the previous speed record.  Their baby is named the Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car) and they plan on surpassing 1,000 MPH -- Mach 1.4 is roughly 1,065 MPH at sea-level.  This would not only put the record for fastest car to shame, but it would outdo the low altitude plane record of 994 MPH.

While Green may be the daredevil behind the wheel, Richard Noble, who also project-led the Thrust SSC and himself held the world speed record between 1994 and 1997, is the brains behind the endeavor and its mastermind.  He lives for the chance to see a car reach these blisteringly-fast speeds.  He enthuses, "The next three years are going to be tough, testing and damned exciting."

The basic design for the Bloodhoud SSC was revealed this week at the London's Science Museum.  The car has a long tapered body, looking much like a rocket in car guise.  It is 12.8 meters long and weighs a hefty 6.4 tons.  Its wheels reach 10,000 rpm at its top planned speed. 

While some question the practicality of the team's unquenchable thirst for speed, Noble says that the project is as much to inspire creative engineering as anything else.  He states, "I've met graduate engineers who are adamant that our previous record was what inspired their career choice as youngsters: that sort of thing makes all the effort worthwhile. Bloodhound SSC will be so much faster and, we hope, will fire up every school kid about the science and technology."

The project is financed entirely by private sponsorships.  Despite its outlandish nature, some real technological improvements could arise out of the extremes it subjects its components to.  Paul Drayson, science minister for the UK government is enamored enough by the project to fund an accompanying education program.  He states, "This project is not just about the bragging rights to the world land speed record. This will result in tangible scientific developments that will benefit all, for example in areas such as fuel efficiency and safety and which could be used in the cars we drive in the future."

The team hopes to make their record run in 2011.

They are currently in the process of selecting the optimal track.  Track regularity and conditions become enormously important to a successful run and the kind of epic speeds the team is thirsting for.  It needs to be perfectly flat, with no plant cover, and feature 10 miles of open ground.  It would also need to be completely dry at least 3 months a year and be able to hold the facilities and housing necessary to support the attempt.

So far the team has narrowed the choice to 14 candidate locations -- eight in the United States, four in Australia, one in Turkey and one in South Africa.