Rocket Cars – pure suicide, thousands horses strong

Crazy Cars, Sick Toys March 19th, 2009

The Jet Car, yes, unlike others that only look like a rocket, this one is the real deal.

jet car

Ed Shadle and Keith Zanghi wanted to break the 800 mph land speed record in the US. So how do you do that… ummm, maybe with a rocket car,

This rocket car is called the North American Eagle and is actually  powered by a 1957 Lockheed F-104 Starfighter’s 42,500 horsepower engine.

The jetcar is not a cheap one to drive. Using 160 gallons of gas a minute, a few minute run can will force you to put your kids, wife and pets to work just to pay your monthly gas bills.

Looks like a cool toy for anyone who can afford it and may have a death wish.

The pair above may have some competition for that land speed record from the Aussie Invader Rocket car. The Aussie invader rocket car is not small. The jet car is 55 feet in length and has a 10 ft. height tailfin…. definitely wouldn’t fit in my garage.

The Aussie Invader – featuring 300,000 horses of LOX / JP5 rocket power

rocket car aussie invader

From their site AUSSIE INVADER . COM

After seeing X-Prize winner SpaceShipOne, McGlashan, “The fastest Aussie on Earth,” wondered if rocket motors could propel him up to speeds of 1,609 km/h. So he called up SpaceDev, the company who provided the rocket motor technology for the world’s first
private-sector astronaut mission. He also enlisted the help of John “Ackers” Ackroyd, the designer of 1983’s land-speed-record-breaking car Thrust 2. They came up a wingless rocket-powered jet fighter on wheels.

OK, not all of us can either afford a jet car nor risk our lives for a few minutes of ultimate speed. Here a a few alternatives…

Strap the rocket to a cheap car and save millions on engineering and manufacturing.

rocket strapped to a car

 Create a tour bus that looks like a rocket, hey, this one can make you money

rocket bus

and there is the Baron Margo rocket car which is a motorcycle car that happens to look like a rocket to give you that ultra cool feeling.

baron margo rocket car


Motorcycle Cars

Alternative Vehicles, Cool rides, Crazy Cars, Motorcycles March 19th, 2009

For anyone who ever wanted a safer bike, here we go with the motorcycle cars.

Combining a car and a bike? this may be the wrong way to do it below.

bike crashes into car - car motorcycle wreck

Homemade motorcycle cars, well homemade as in created by individuals and not an auto manufacturer.  This one is in Italy and looks like someone took a bike and enclosed it. The tiny little side tires look like training wheels and really need to go. If it wasn’t for the training wheels, this bike would look really sweet.

homemede motorcycle car

This is the ecomobile, looks like the one above minus the training wheels

carbike

This bike car is pretty cool, looks like a really small 3wheeler.

homemede car

Hawk Concept Car

The Hawk Concept car / bike was created by a designer from New Zealand – Alex Hodge. It is a concept car that combines a motorcycle engine with some features you find in cars such as more room, an enclosure for increased safety and high back seat.

hawk concept car

motorcycle car concept car Hawk

The Venture enclosed 3 wheel motorcycle

mbike car

venture motorcycle car

Rocket bike car

The Baron Margo Rocket Car is a creative mix of bike / car and… a rocket. Now, I’m not sure if the rocket part of it really works. That would be a bit scary if it did, would not want to be behind him at a light.

baron margo rocket car

the Rocket car

rocket car

Concept Cars – Sixty Years of Futuristic Automobiles

Cool rides, Crazy Cars, concept cars, vintage cars March 15th, 2009

I love concept cars, I love how people design cars that they know are just too out there to ever go into production, but they attract the crowds at the auto shows. Take a look at 6 decades of whacky, crazy and way too cool concept cars.

It’s odd that in 60 years of car companies building concept cars, not much has changed, they always seem really rounded, even when the styles where boxy, and always, very futuristic.

The flyboat, one very early concept that may not have even had any wheels. OK, not really a car, but I love this one.

flyboat early vintage concept car

Nazi Racecar

nazi racecar

 1938 concept Phantom

1938 concept phantom

Another vintage concept car, not sure what is is, but it sure must have been a cool ride back then.

vintage concept car

1950 Futureliner from GM – kinda a bus, wagon and mack truck all rolled into one crazy car.

1950 concept car futureliner

GM vintage concept car

Buick Vintage Concept Cars from the 1950’s

 

buick concept car circa 1950

buick vintage concept car

Vintage Concept Car

 concept-vintage.jpg

1964 GM Stiletto, the look of the future?

64 concept stiletto

1964 future car, not sure what they where thinking here because this is just plain ugly. Most Concept cars look sleek and hopefully cool, no matter what year, this one here looks like a bad Jaws movie coming at you. Jaws may be too cool for this one… OK,  how about a salmon swimming upstream at you? The front end just reminds me of fish… go figure.

 1964 future car

1950ish Model D concept

 1950ish model D

1970 Porsche Tapiro

1980 porsche concept sports car

1980 GM Epcot

 

1980 GM Epcot

1988 GM SunRaycer – Arrival of the solar powered cars? guess we never saw that one happen.

 1988 GM Sunraycer

1989 Solar Car, not made by a large auto manufacturer, I think, But still cool

1989 Solar Car

2005 mercedes hydrogen car

 2005 mercedes hydrogen car

2003 GM Hy Wire Concept

2003 GM Hy Wire

 

Mercedes Benz Formula One

 benz formula concept

mercedes benz concept car

Pontiac Solstice

 pontiac solstice

 Here are a few more recent models

A Suziki Concept SUV from 2007

 suzuki

This one is awsome, this is the Mazda Taiki concept car, reminds me of ocean waves… you can see why I’m sure.

 concept_1-mazda.jpg

 concept_mazda-taiki.jpg

3 wheel car/bike?

three wheel car

Asian Concept from an auto show a few years back

concept Asian car

1970 style Dodge Challenger concept

 dodge challenger concept