From the outside, the Bloodhound is sleek and aerodynamic, stretching 13.5 meters long (44 feet), with a two-meter high tail fin perched at the end for stability as it hurtles forward at high speeds.

And while looks matter, it's really what's on the inside that designers hope will be enough to propel this supersonic car into the history books.

"It's a mixture of jet engine and rocket motor," says project director Richard Noble.

The car houses a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, and a supercharged Jaguar V8 engine driving a pump for the Nammo rocket motor buit by the Royal Space Agency. A team of Formula 1 and aerospace experts built the Bloodhound, with help from the British Royal Air Force, and Army engineers.

It has taken eight years of design, research and manufacturing to build, all in an attempt to smash the current land speed record of 763 mph set in 1997. If everything goes according to plan, the car will eventually travel at 1,000 mph.

"Zero to a 1,000 miles an hour is 55 seconds, and then when we go through the measured mile it's 3.6 seconds ... a mile in 3.6 seconds. Then we gotta think about stopping," Noble said with a laugh.

Noble is no stranger to fast cars, he drove the Thrust2, which traveled at 633 mph, and broke the land speed record back in 1983. He was also the project director of the Thrust SSC, the team that broke the record in 1997.

"We achieved the first-ever supersonic land speed record with enormous supersonic bangs," Noble said of the 1997 victory.

Aside from breaking world records, the Bloodhound team also wants to inspire young students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. At the exhibition, the project's education director carried around what looked like a toy car in robin's egg blue.

"We have a global model rocket car challenge, where students design, build and race their own model rocket cars," said education director Aulden Dunipace. His toy car was in fact a model rocket car which, when powered by a mini rocket, can travel 90mph. It was also equipped with an accelerometer to gather data, top speeds, acceleration, and G force.

Next year, the Bloodhound team will take the car to a desert race track in South Africa designed especially for the supersonic machine. RAF pilot Andy Green will be in the cockpit, driving towards the goal of 800 mph in 2016, and 1,000 mph in 2017.

The Bloodhound is on display at London's Canary Wharf through Sunday.