Motion Pictures The Fastest Woman on Earth

No one can question her personality or talent. With any endeavor, there are levels of risk and foolishness. If you can't reduce the levels of risk enough to place the odds at least minimally in your favor then you are at the level of foolishness. The NA Eagle team believed they had the odds in their favor. Fate disagreed. A great loss.

 

Decent review in the WSJ yesterday

 

I will watch the movie if I see it locally, but who knows when it may be shown?
I don't do the Monday morning quarterback thing as it's always easy to critique things long after they've gone sideways. I know I've done it to myself when I thought I could get away with it this one time, and it went badly.
Unfortunately the result for her was as bad as it gets, and that's a terrible loss. But I always felt she was a very smart lady, and I'm sure she considered the risk before climbing into the cockpit.

 

No doubt All Girls Garage wouldn't have happened without her influence. She was the real deal...

 

I had known the details for quite some time. For the family to go ahead and reveal so much and complete the film project to give closure and cement her legacy as a cornerstone of her foundation is unheard of in LSR or anywhere for that matter. It certainly gave me closure.

 

Worth watching and well done.

 

I have seen the Documentary announced to be available Streaming on a cable channel, maybe Motor Trend.

 

It came out on HBOmax last night.

 

That was very hard to watch. I cried everytime she spoke. Hearing her voice again is tough. Brings back memories of Ink n Iron. We texted when she was in town and what event she was here for. I tried to go, when I could, to just say HI. She was always so busy...

 

Her family likes how the production turned out. A bittersweet ending is how is was phrased.

 

Because i don't have cable and don't watch tv, I never heard of Jesse before the crash, but then I heard plenty on the internet. I would like to see the movie. Is there a way to see it on the internet?

 

We can not get over the air signals out here at the ranch (feds screwed that up when we went digital), no cable options either. Got tired of Satellite creeping up in price so we stream. Roku stick and subscribed to HBO Max when Lavin wanted to watch Game of Thrones to see what the hype was about

 

Never got to meet her, just saw her on the TV shows, miss her, glad I don't know how to get live streaming, a product with no marketing to people over 18.

Bob

 

Yep, that car had been plagued from the start. Sucks that it took her loosing her life for that pile of junk to be retired completely.

 

I saw it yesterday, very hard to watch. The plane/car was cobbled together mess but looking at what Kitty Oneil was driving wasn't all that impressive of a build either but did show Kitty surviving a crash. I guess both of them knew the risks and wanted it bad enough to try. RIP Jesse.

 

FOI has her crash speed at just over 200mph, yes drivers can and do perish at that speed and below, but there are 1000's of times showing that a properly built safety structure around the driver and surviving up to that speed and above

 

I finally got to watch the documentary on HBO last night. No doubt, it was well done, and very informative about Jessie's life and her inspirations and her accomplishments.

It should have been more than obvious, that the F-104, surplus air frame and the configuration that it turned into, wasn't ever going to safely break the land speed record, set by Andy Greene in the Thrust II vehicle.
She knew the risks, and she took that chance.

All of that being said, I am confident that her life will be an inspiration to future generations of little girls, that have that same spark of competition and the drive to excel and be the best at what ever.

Personally, I would have really liked to see her do it in a wheel driven vehicle rather than a thrust powered vehicle, and do it out at Bonneville and be the fastest woman at the salt flats, and still be alive!

 

Try this .

 

I signed up for hbo on the internet and watched it. It was well done, I thought.
It seems that their safety strategy was based on preventing a crash.
If I was going to drive something like that, I would want a very well designed cage and driver restraint system. And a massive fire suppression system. And a failsafe fuel shut-off. Art Arfons walked away from a crash at over 600 in a car he designed to save his life if he crashed.

Jesse aknowledged the risk, but like the rest of us who race, didn't really think she would die at it.
I feel really bad for her mom.

Jessie made a good point: a car doesn't know the sex of the driver. So why have separate record for girls? I think that with all motorsports. Go out their and try to win. It matters not if you are male or female. Look at top fuel, funny car, pro-stock, etc.

 

"She died doing what she loved."

Some people are just drawn to risky activities that most people's brains would be screaming "NOPE NOPE NOPE!" Base jumpers, free climbers, rocket car drivers. There's definitely a little bit of selfishness in there when people pursue those needs, but on the other hand, they are needs...those people wouldn't be who they are if they didn't have those outlets. I don't really understand it, but I'm guessing her friends and family did.

 

I grew up under a fighter pilot father who felt that dangerous activities, like his fighter pilot career, could be pursued reasonably safely. He taught me that there was a right way and a wrong way to pursue dangerous activities, and that there are some people who should, and some people who absolutely should not pursue them.

In my years as a skydiver and BASE jumper I saw a lot of his wisdom ring true.

Now as somebody who works in documentary/reality TV... well, I've got a whole new layer of perspective. Let's just say that when it comes to the Jessi Combs story, I have very complex thoughts on it all -- that I'll keep to myself.

But I will say that there's a lot wisdom in what you just said about risk takers. A lot.

 

BASE? We may know some of the same folks.

I have rock and ice climbed, to me I am WAY more comfortable on ice even though it is considered inheirently more dangerous.

It all comes down to managing risk and what you can handle. I knew a Green Beret that was in Nam, he was one of the carvers on Crazyhorse Mtn. He was also a rock climber and had taped carabiners up on the rock to clip into with his rope to "practice" To him that was safe and he was comfortable with the risk. He died from smoking.

 

The first skydiver friend I lost died in a car crash driving home from the drop zone (yes, sober). More recently an old BASE jumping buddy of mine, jumping non-stop since his twenties, died in his sleep. He was in his seventies.

 

This happened a week and a half ago less than five miles from my house.

https://dailyvoice.com/new-jersey/w...-37-dies-in-hunterdon-county-accident/847147/

Not sure what happened and it makes no difference now to the deceased. It's a tragedy and a lot of pain to his friends and family. It really doesn't matter what you are doing, or how safe you think you are. Like I said in a earlier post, I believe when it's you time, it's your time.

I hope in the future I will be able to see this documentary elsewhere as I don't have HBO or HBO Max .

 

Just watched it. Very good documentary. I hope her legacy inspires young women out there to follow their automotive dreams. She seemed like a good person. That video of the crash from her on board camera was tough to watch.

 

Most people that jump out of planes take a parachute with them.

"If your time has come, your time has come." Thinking like that should allow you to jump out of planes without a parachute.

That "vehicle" was an accident just waiting to happen.

 

I’m torn. I want to watch it because Jessi was such an interesting person and I’d like to know more about her, but then I don’t want to watch it because I already know how it will end…

 

I just watched it. Pretty well made documentary. I had never heard what caused the crash but now know.

RIP Jessi ..... You were one of a kind.

 

In 2013 I went out to the Salt Flats with the Rolling Bones for Speed Week. On the last day of racing and late in the afternoon, Billy-O, who rented out seat time to run on the salt in a 32 Ford Roadster and who also ran out to the salt flats with the rolling bones, was approached by Jesse Combs requesting she be able to make her qualifying 125 mph and a 150 run to get her license to run on the salt. My buddy, who was riding shotgun and switching off on driving my roadster to and from the salt, and I ended up volunteering to be her pit crew for both these runs. Hell, we jumped at the chance even though there was no one else there to do it! She introduced herself to us and then said that she wanted to be the fastest woman on earth. You can not find a nicer person, so very down to earth, and just one little ball of fire and a very pretty one at that. I have to look back in my pics and see if I have any of that afternoon. She made both runs, qualified, thanked us and was off onto the next step to being the fastest woman on earth. My buddy and I will never forget it, especially when we got back to Billy-Os spot on the salt and had to load up in less than an hour before we were kicked off the salt. We did it, working like complete animals, rolling off the salt at just around 7:59 pm.

It was, as my grands would say, epic….