io9
Rocket-mania inspired more than just brassieres during the Cold War. Car designers tried to come up with the most rocket-like features during the 1950s and early 1960s, including nose cones and rocket-like fins. And racing fiends were adding actual rockets to their cars, as early as 1946. Here's a complete history, with a huge gallery.
The first rocket car actually came before the Cold War proper. The Don Hulbert special was built for the 1934 Indy 500, with a V8 engine that failed to qualify. But Andy Granatelli and his brother bought it in 1946 and added eight JATO rockets to the rear, boosting its speed to an amazing 85 MPH. The car is still racing today.
Car companies started making their actual passenger cars more rocket-like with the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone, featuring cool-looking nose cones and fins. Some models also included a see-thru dome that could slide back. The 1959 Cadillac Coup DeVille also included some very rocket-esque fins.
But the real rocket action in the 60s and 70s came from race cars with actual rockets attached, like the Budweiser Rocket, seen above. And the Blue Flame, which set a new land-speed record of 623 MPH in 1970:
But my favorite is probably the Spirit of America, which included an actual military surplus J47 jet engine and set a land-speed record in 1963. Too bad it roared into an 18-foot salt-brine pond. And then there's the British Thrust 2, which just looks like it's trying too hard:
Comments
C'mon, keep the continuity - Spirit of America and Thrust were emphatically NOT rocket cars.
Dont forget the Arfons Brothers, who started out putting WWII surplus V-16 piston engines in dragsters back in the days when a ball cap was considered safety equipment.
The built a lot of Jet powered Bonneville and drag cars with jet engines, eventually setting the World Land Speed Record several times in 1964-5.
His cars were always named "The Green Monster" and there is a wikipedia entry.
Nosecones pretty much imply a pedestrian-hostile attitude. "En guarde! Zee crosswalk, she is mine...!"
Wow, that Cadillac Cyclone looks like Batman's daily driver.
Totally sweet.
Call me crazy but there's just something not right promoting beer on the side of a car, especially a rocket car.
@Dr.Danger: I bet you it can do the Bullrun less then 12 parsecs
@wishnevsky: I read about the Arfons brothers while I was doing this blog post... didn't they work on the Spirit of America car? I have some pics of it in the gallery but didn't work it into the actual blog post.
Methinks the guy usually associated with The Darwin Awards belongs here too. Anyone has a picture of his JATO equipped 1967 Chevy Impala, before or after it hit the side of a cliff?
Oh wait, The darwin Awards website finally tells, after all these years, it was a bogus story.
@charliejane: As i remember from my high school reading of "Hot Rod" they were Breedlove's strongest competitors. The difference was that Breedlove had strong sponsorship and tech help, and the Arfons'were a bunch of backyard guys, whose idea of a test bed was lashing a jet engine to a tree and firing it up. They broke windows all over the neighborhood with the noise.
I shook Art's hand at a car show back then.. He was a real "gosh, aww, shucks" kind of good old boy. Those kind of people always reminded me of Dick Seaton, and all those "let me wire up this hyperdrive so we can escape the BEM's" guys.. There were real prototypes for the pulp heroes, like Glen Curtiss, for example
The Arfons were very like Burt Monro whose story was told in the Anthony Hopkins movie "The World's Fastest Indian."
These people were all part of the same industrial hack movement, gasoline-punk if you will, that recreated America, and led directly to Science Fiction's Golden Age. People like Henry Ford, Barney Oldfield, Gen Curtiss, the Wright Brothers, Louis Chevrolet, the Stanley (steamer) Brothers and thousands more were way cool, and had incredible adventures.
I'll stop before this becomes and essay, but "Tom Swift and his Electric Doohicky" were a reflection of a real movement, just as cyberpunk is a reflection of Gates and Jobs.
I think Ford and Curtiss had more fun, however.
Am I the only one who thinks they should put fins back on cars? I loved my old 1964 Caddy.
they did something like this on mythbusters.
@jabber: You're completely right.
It should be schnapps.
Doesn't this just look like the kind of thing your crazy German uncle would be muttering about, all the while smelling like the world's biggest ambulatory Altoid?
"Und zen ze peroxide goes true dis pipe xxxere, goes all floofy-kerfaffle all over ze catalytic sxxxreen, rushes out ze expanzion nozzer, Robert is your uncle, ja? Hahahaha!"
I'd like to point out that the Budweiser rocket looks almost exactly like the Blue Flame, with a new paint job.
The Arfons brothers weren't on the best of terms - they did their stuff separately. There was Walt, and there was Art. In the LSR business, there were no Arfons brothers.
Love this stuff.
It would be great to see 'em run for reals.
I know they run other high-speed stuff on the salt flats still, I just have to find out WHEN.
The wife and I are doing the Udvar-Hazy center on a three day jaunt this weekend, but there's nothing wrong with planning the next three-dayer in advance... :D
@strider_mt2k: There are exhibition runs at drag strips and state fairs. there is a jet powered truck i see in TV every once in a while
and there is a jet car building show that runs on discovery channel.
@GizFanAlpha: Twice.
The Blue Flame was always one of my favorites. I built (but never really finished) one for X-Plane a few years ago. The best part was that I put small canards on the front and used elevators and ailerons in the airfoils, so if you hit a bump, it'd go airborne and you could fly it around.
@SpudMills:Wouldn't that be a bit dangerous?
@GizFanAlpha: On the contrary; there are far less things to run into when you're up in the air. And tire blowouts at 600+ MPH aren't life-threatening. Of course, running out of fuel is.
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