Friday 8th April
Drag Rocket: You Know You Want To
Get your rocket build off the ground with this!
Whatever those suggestions may be, it's safe to say that none of them will come close to the performance boost made possible (if not especially practical) by the contents of this small wooden box, currently starting at £5000 on a well known auction site near you.
Obviously, before you enter the auction you might like to consider a few points. First, you'll need a few more bits to turn your Reliant Robin into a Veyron-humbling mega-machine.Then there are the seriously life-endangering characteristics of rocket power, not just for anyone standing behind but also for the mug behind the wheel.
American 'Slammin' Sammy Miller was an addict of extreme acceleration. He traded the relatively pedestrian pace of nitromethane-powered Funny Cars (one of which put him in hospital for six months) for the eerily silent but utterly outlandish pace of rocket-powered drag vehicles.
Just how quick were they? Well, in 2012 Spencer Massey's bellowing Top Fueler set a new NHRA world record ET by covering the quarter mile in 3.729 seconds at a terminal speed of just under 330mph. Nearly 32 years ago, in July 1984, Sammy put his Oxygen rocket car into stage at Santa Pod. 3.58 seconds later he silently coasted through the top end lights at 386mph. This remains the quickest quarter mile pass recorded on any dragstrip anywhere.
With Sammy admitting that he routinely blacked out during his 10G runs, the NHRA sanctioning body felt obliged to make rocket cars illegal. So as not to waste the car, Miller strapped some skis to Oxygen and drove it at 247mph on New York's frozen Lake George. Well, you would wouldn't you.Tragically, Sammy was killed in a Texas oilfield accident in 2002. Here he is bursting most of Santa Pod's control tower windows in his. And here we see him (or thanks to the edit, don't see him) having a bit of a moment at the. Cool refuelling guys in silver raincoats and Vader helmets weren't just part of the spectacle: rocket fuel is pretty nasty stuff.
Legal rocket action is now available once more in the UK in the loopy bike-riding shape of Frenchman Eric Teboul, due to appear at the Pod a couple of times this year. Why not win the auction and turn up in your rocket Robin? After all, there are no moving parts to wear out, apart from your eyeballs.
DRAG CAR ROCKET
Price : Bidding opened at £5,000
Why you should : Everyone dreams of running a rocket dragster
Why you shouldn't : The rocket has been sitting in a shed for a number of years
See the original advert.
For your chance to win a passenger ride in a dragster click.
[Eric Teboul photo:]