Secret operation sees 54-foot, ten-tonne speed record-breaking car move at museum

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Massive supersonic car which holds speed record moved into Coventry Transport Museum in secret operationClick on the picture to launch

In a highly complex manoeuvre carried out by a heavy lifting company and kept secret by staff, Thrust SSC, the 54-foot long, ten-tonne supersonic car which also has the distinction of being the world’s fastest car, has moved into a hotly-anticipated new gallery after being hoisted over the rear gates of the city’s Transport Museum.

Transported onto a lorry and driven at walking pace around the outskirts of the building, the SSC followed its predecessor, the Thrust 2, into the Biffa Award Land Speed Record Gallery, which is set to become a must-see for fans of transport history and speed when it opens early next year.

“This was a fantastic moment for everyone involved,” said Gary Hall, of Culture Coventry, whose planners had been plotting for months to move a vehicle matching the length of two double-decker buses, lifting it in the air on a crane and positioning it at the front of the museum.

“Thrust SSC has lived permanently at Coventry Transport Museum since it was acquired in 2001 - four years after it smashed the World Land Speed Record in the Black Rock Desert - and this was the first time it had moved since its arrival.

“While the work on the museum is not due to be finally completed until Summer 2015, we are really pleased that we will be opening the new Land Speed Record Gallery in February. Visitors haven’t got long to wait to come and enjoy it.”

A 4D Land Speed Record simulator will also entertain visitors as part of an £8.5 million redevelopment transforming 12 of the museum’s 14 galleries in time for the summer.

“Thrust2 and ThrustSSC are the two fastest cars in the world, and we are very pleased to have been part of the team that has created a new, prominent gallery for them so that they can be displayed in all their glory,” said Martin Gallagher, of J Tomlinson, the company responsible for uniting the groups behind the move.

“Transferring these two very special cars into their new home was a unique operation. We will now begin work on the area that these cars previously occupied.”

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk//history-and-heritage/transport-and-industry/art511184-secret-operation-sees-fifty-four-foot-ten-tonne-speed-record-breaking-car-move-at-museum