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


The Budweiser Rocket Car of 1979

Alternative Vehicles, Crazy Cars, Sick Toys, concept cars January 19th, 2009

The Budweiser Rocket Car of 1979

budweiser rocket car

I guess this one may have been a bit disappointing, but a goot try none the less.

The Budweiser rocket car was built in 1979 and they planned to breakland speed records with a rocket car that could exceed the speed of sound. The Budweiser rocket car was supposed to be the very first land vehicle to break the sound barrier.

Stan Barrett drove the jet car on Dec. 17, 1979 and the rest is wrapped in controversy.  It seems no one knows if the vehicle broke the sound barrier or not. I must wonder where the speedometer was here, but the rumor is that no sonic boom was heard pointing to maybe, the sound barrier was not broken.