The Real Rocket Car

NocturnalPS

?¿That's Odd?¿
Staff Emeritus
8,542
United States
Tx, Alamo City
XRaptor529
Going out of the Seattle II course in my GT-One hitting speeds of of over 2,000,000,000 mph remindes me of a story i once read about: here goes:


The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened.

It seems that a guy had somehow obtained a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off-actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!
The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20)seconds before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.



Now what do yall think of that? pretty cool huh? i dont know if its true but if ne one ever heard of this ever happening let me know
:rolleyes:
 
Holy ****!!! <-- all I have to say about that.. :smilewink

Those JATO's are sweet.. they use 'em on the Blue Angel teams' C-130.. and after seeing a few shows with "Fat Albert" using those bastards.. makes ya think how INSANE that guy would've had to be to even THINK of attatching one to a car.. jeese..

He could have at least done something to his car to add to the downforce tho eh? :)

I'd love to find out what kinda speed he got though.. :eek:
musta been like riding in one of GT3's Escudo's.. hehehe
 
If u are a milionare u can get JATO - hell u can get anything! Man I want some JATO! 1/4 drag race 3 seconds at 350MHP! Man beat everyone! hehe
 
That story did the e-mail rounds a couple of years ago and it seemed resonable. So I take it people from Arizona have a real need for speed! Isn't there a US state that doesn't have a speed limit??

I would like to strap a couple of those Jato's to my 206 and try em out on the salt lake plains..........aaaarrrrggggg!!:)
 
Well Altf8



i just received this from a friend of mine and that link that you just put up did say that same thing...... its at the part where the pic. of the crash sight is basically sayin the same thing so its not a "gross misrepresentation" of nething go ahead and look for your self:rolleyes:
 
Man, that was long, but a well worthwhile read.

Also, Nocturnal, could you please try to construct a comprehensive sentence, if not just a phrase...I know i don't always use proper punctuation and grammar on the internet, but man, your last post is just ridiculous. I can't understand it whatsoever.
 
Originally posted by GVX
.........Isn't there a US state that doesn't have a speed limit??

The State of Montana. Well actually we do have a speed limit now since the Gov't was going to cut Federal Hwy Dollars.

It was really fun for about 6 months. Then winter came which slowed everthing down and in the spring, 65 mph signs were popping up everywhere.
 
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