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| Image ©Coventry Transport Museum/Mark Radford |
Nottingham-based contractor J Tomlinson was in the driving
seat of a delicate relocation operation to move the world’s fastest car Thrust
SSC into its new home as part of a development project at Coventry Transport
Museum.
Thrust SSC is being given pride of place in an all-new
‘Biffa Award Land Speed Record Gallery’, which is set to open in early 2015.
As part of the daring relocation manoeuvre, the 54ft long,
10-tonne supersonic car was hoisted over the rear gates of the museum, before
being transported to a low-loader lorry and driven at walking pace around the
outskirts of the building. The vehicle, which measures almost the same length
as two double-decker buses laid end-to-end, was then once again lifted in the
air on a crane and placed into position just outside the new gallery, at the
front of the museum, before being manoeuvred into the brand new exhibition
space. Thrust SSC’s predecessor Thrust 2 had been moved in the same way just
minutes before.
J Tomlinson is the contractor for part of the £8.5 million
redevelopment of Coventry Transport Museum, which got underway in April this
year and is due to be completed by Summer 2015, when 12 of the museum’s 14
galleries will have been transformed, giving visitors a fresh perspective on
Coventry’s fascinating transport history.
Martin Gallagher, construction managing director at J
Tomlinson, the company tasked with managing the base build works and moving the
Thrust vehicles, said: “Transferring these two very special cars into their new
home was not only a unique operation for J Tomlinson, it also marked a key
point in the extension and refurbishment of Coventry Transport Museum.
“Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC 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. We will now begin work on the area that these cars previously occupied,
as J Tomlinson continues the development of the home of this internationally
significant transport collection.”
Gary Hall, chief executive at Culture Coventry, the trust
which runs Coventry Transport Museum, said: “This was a fantastic moment for everyone
involved. 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.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be giving both Thrust SSC and
Thrust 2 a new home in their own specially designed Biffa Award Land Speed
Record Gallery, where they will be joined by an all-new 4D Land Speed Record
simulator – the whole thing is set to be a real ‘WOW’ for visitors old and
new.”
The relocation manoeuvre was managed by Leicester-based MFH
Construction Projects, and the moves were undertaken by Collett & Sons Ltd,
a Halifax-based company specialising in transport, heavy lift, marine services
and transport consulting.
Visitors will be able to see Thrust SSC and Thrust 2 in
their new Land Speed Record Gallery from February 2015 onwards. The new gallery
has been supported by Biffa Award, a multi-million pound environment fund
managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT), which utilises landfill
tax credits donated by Biffa Waste Services.
The Transport Museum redevelopment is also funded by the
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and
Garfield Weston Foundation.
