I am working for MTU Germany. We are one of the world leading companies in jet engine maintenance. Maybe I can get one out of the company )))) A nice big GE CF6-80 with 80000 pounds of thrust..
llonning---that Mustang had a Turbonique engine, a rocket thruster driving a turbine. I recall some crazy dude put one on a Go-Kart, claimed it would do 200 mph, but couldn't get anybody to run it. Even he wasn't THAT crazy! BTW, anybody remember Dr. Nathan Ostich's Flying Cadeuceus weenie roaster? One of the first jet cars.
There were a few who raced Rocket Go Karts ..the most popular was Capt.Jack Mc Clure ( Fishin Boat Captian ) I remember seeing him race numerious times in the 70's. There also were George Lavgne, Pat Best and his brother. They were powered by a 1,500 lb thrust Hydrogen Peroxide rocket motor. Pat made history when he set the world speed record at 248 mph on his rocket kart North Star speedway. They raced this Karts side by side for two years.
I just got this in an email today...anyone know anything about it? Could it be the one Bruce mentioned above?
Art Arfons lived across a field from my Dad's Sister outside of Akron. Art was still running the allison at the time but was building the jet car. He had a test pad (Two big trees with chains) that he had used for years. We he was working on the Jet you could hear the roar and see smoke from the engine. When he opened it up you might catch a glimps of flame. After a wide open run you would see smoke continuing, then hear the sirens and see the flashing lights of the Fire Engines coming to put the Field Fire out. It was pretty good entertainment back then. A few years later I was old enough to adventure over and stand around and Gawk, Art being the Man he was would put a young kid to work doing spmething where the drool wouldn't harm anything. I was lucky enough to continue my Friendship with him and get to drool on his projects up to the ninties.
Someone here must know about Sam Miller. A funnycar drag racer turned rocket car builder who eventually died in an oil field accident in Texas. His son, Sam Jr. is a fantastic fabricator and welder. And I hear is currently building another rocket car. Frank
Here is an early postcard my parents received from Craig Breedlove. The first Spirit of America which registered an average of 407.45MPH and a top speed of 428.37MPH on August 5,1963.
The Infinity jet car was piloted by Glen Lesher. Glen was more of a drag racer than a salt flats guy. While making a record run he brought all of the available thrust on at once and destroyed the car and sadly, himself. The remains of the car were left at the entrance of the flats for a year so all who entered would remind themselves of the consequences of what could happen. Men still raced and men still set records. The Infinity looked to have the potential for setting the LSR. I love salt flats racing.
While not exactly a jet car, Gary Gabelich and the Blue Flame may have been the prettiest "rocket" to ever grace the salt. As I recall it held the landspeed record for a long time.
I knew Slamin Sammy very well since the 70's when race against him with his FC's .. It was a shock to everyone on Sammy death he was killed in an accident in 2002 while working in the Texas oilfields for his company Applied Force. Sammy first Rocket Car was Vanishing Point a sleek Vega Funny Car, recorded the first ever three-second pass in 1979 also became the first to exceed 300 in Europe in July of the same year. Sammy also set a World Ice Speed record when he put skis on his Oxygen dragster and recorded 247 mph at Lake George. In 1984, Slammin' Sammy" made the drag racing pass heard 'round the world, a stunning 3.58 at Santa Pod Raceway, which still stands as the absolute E.T. record. http://www.dragracingonline.com/features/miller_b1.html <embed src="http://videos.streetfire.net/vidiac.swf" FlashVars="video=ceea7138-5a48-4bdd-bb74-98540077563b" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="428" height="352" name="ePlayer" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br />Slammin' Sammy Miller runs his Oxygen Dragster at Santa Pod Raceway, July 7th 1982. He still holds the record for the fastest ever 1/4 mile ET.
How about some corrections and additions for this thread? 1 - Fossett has NOT been declared dead yet. That takes 7 years according to law. 2 - No one cared about the area rule in respect to cars back then. 3 - Mr. Lancaster - jet engines on trailers have been used routinely at drag races and NASCAR races for years to dry the track. This is not a new development. 4 - Flying Cadeuceus was the 1st jet car. Dr. Ostich didn't have the nuts to go for it on the salt, however. 5 - Skippy, I bought one just like it on evilBay for $5. 6 - Slammin' Sammy started behind the start line to set that 3.89, and it had consequences in the NHRA. Scared the insurance company to death! Hard to believe Breedloves' SOA was built in his mom's driveway! Now that's hot rodding roots right there!
Unless a family member requests it... And his wife did on November 7. As such, he has been declared dead.
This one is a standard card, the other has a personal letter written on the back. Something that can't be bought.
Regarding "area rule", there isn't much that applies to jet cars. The rule states that the cross-sectional area of an object should remain the same for its entire length, or failing that should increase only once, smoothly, then decrease the same way. On an airplane, with wings sticking out somewhere, this makes the "coke bottle" waist so obvious on many fighters. Cars don't have wings, well, not big enough to fly on, anyway.
Cool thread. I recall reading/seeing that Breedlove's rocket-powered car broke a LS record, but the timing association later dissed the record because rockets were ruled ineligible or something like that...must have pissed that guy off. Those guys had concrete nuts. Patrick
Here's one we tend to forget about in this discussion. Truax's Skycycle for Evel Knievels Snake River jump
Breedlove used a jet, not a rocket. His car was ruled ineligible because it had 3 wheels, not 4. They ruled it a cycle.
"Tea sipping pansy!" You want to tell Andy Green that to his face. A short biography of a typical "tea drinking pansy" courtesy of the JCB website. http://www.jcbdieselmax.com Andy Green and JCB also hold the diesel LSR at 350mph. Andy Green went to Oxford on an RAF Scholarship and graduated with First Class Honours in mathematics before undertaking full-time flight training with the RAF. He was selected to fly Phantoms, spent five years on F4s and moved to the Tornado F3 for two more years before being posted to Farnborough with the rank of Squadron Leader. He hit world headlines after being selected in 1994 to drive the ThrustSSC land speed record car, with which he became the first and only man ever to drive at supersonic speeds when he averaged 763.035 mph on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada on 15 October 1997. Following that remarkable British triumph he returned to fly Tornados again as Flight Commander, had a one-year spell at staff college in Australia, and following promotion to Wing Commander spent two years in the Permanent Joint HQ at Northwood running operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is now OC Operations Wing at RAF Wittering, running the airfield and all other station operations at the 'Home of the Harrier', and also Deputy Station Commander. An enthusiastic sportsman having flown and rowed at college and university, he is captain of the RAF Cresta team, flies a Pitts Special at weekends, goes skydiving with girlfriend Sophy and is skipper for sailing holidays.
I know it's a jet turbine not a simple jet, but Rover's JET 1 from 1950 set a turbine LSR in Belgium in 1952 on a new un-opened stretch of freeway. Ah yes the "Tea sipping pansies" again setting LSRs. Ed
Thanks Speedtool. I must have been thinking of The Blue Flame rocket-powered car, driven by Gary Gabelich. It held the LSR for about 13 years with a speed of just over 603 mph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Flame_%28car%29 Patrick
Here is the chart/list of LSR from 1898 to 2008...I see an awful lot of British flags in there!!! Andy Green is awesome! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record
You know Bill?? I sold him my 41' Chevy body a few years ago. He is a really nice guy! He gave me a picture from his collection of Craig at B'Ville. I need to call him and see how he's doing......
What about this kind of Jet powered car??? And I want to build one of these... <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9BfLE_c-tMU&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9BfLE_c-tMU&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
600+ miles per hour, it's hard for me to imagine. You'd run out of space pretty quickly at those speeds. I don't know much about this area of land speed racing, but it's very impressive to say the least.
Where are all you Open Wheel guys??? I know the turbine Indy Cars were not liked by most (when I worked at the Speedway museum they had saved thousands of hate mail letters about them) but heck they were a part of History
I seem to recall those indy turbine racers just about won it . a $1.98 bushing went out several laps from the finish. I think they were outlawed the next year. Anyone got an accurate history? I'm a bit fuzzy on this {and a lot of other stuff}
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