I suspect the answer to many of your parts sourcing questions is that this is a very British project, and there's a requisite desire to source everything from "

I suspect the answer to many of your parts sourcing questions is that this is a very British project, and there's a requisite desire to source everything from "British" companies first to show off British engineering and manufacturing prowess. I'm not a Brit, but I think it's cool, pushing the envelope kind of thing. The competition is the previous car, which broke the sound barrier [1]. Phase 1 beats that car and Phase 2 is designed to cement it in. Achieving Phase 1 is "good enough" if sponsorship runs out immediately after. It is a money pit, but in the sense of being a national marketing effort is a money pit. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC