The land 1/4 mile et and speed record

[Blown 472]

You meant to say "can't LEGALLY get it" I think... :crossx:
Yeah, thats it, wink wink

[Jim W]

Years ago, (early eighties?) here in the Rochester NY I knew a guy whose name is Rod Phelps. His nickname was "Rocket Rod".
From memory, and this was year's ago, here is what I remember about the car's and talking to Rod.
Rod had 2 rocket car's. One here on the East coast and one on the West coast. I think the West coast car was sponsored by the Navy.
He had a flyer for the track owners with what the cars do, both Et. and mph. and the cost to the track...........
If I remember right, 1 run was $7,500. More run's were $5,000 extra.
0-60 in less than 1 sec..
0-100 a hair over 1 sec..
Each second added about 100 mph to the top end.
0-200 about 2 sec. etc.
Rod said he was always seeing star's as he went down the track, pretty much on the verge of blacking out.
There was a "peep sight" on the car and his crew would look through the sight to line him up before the run. Pretty much no steering during the run, so direction was critical. Also, once the rocket was lit, there was no way to turn it off. It's "off" when the fuel is gone.
I have forgotten the cost to get him licensed by NHRA but I do remember that it was like 3-4 seperate trials. He had to fly in and pay for everything for all the NHRA officials. On top of that he had Hal Needham (sp?) of Bonniville fame flying in each time to show him how to run the thing.
When I spoke to him, NHRA and licensed 14 drivers for the rocket car's. Only 7 were still alive.
The more pressure that was in the tank/tanks?? the harder it left.
So.....with each good run, the pressure went up. I think Rod said he ran arount 600 lbs. to go 375 mph or so. The tanks were good up to 3,000 psi which would burst the major blood vessels and kill you instantly. The weight of the blood under those G-forces would split the vessel and you are done.
I think NHRA had a speed limit on the rocket car's of 400 mph. They got real nervous when the car's got close to 400.
I asked Rod about the first time he ran full pressure (600 psi or so) what was it like? He said since the car goes from 0-60 in less than 1 sec. imagine sitting in a car and being hit by a Greyhound buss going 60 mph.....about the same feeling!
Sooooooooo, who wants to go rocket racing?????
Be good, Jim

[058]

I also remember seeing rocket powered cars run. One was the "Chicago Patrol" funny car bodied H2O2 powered match racer. Saw it at Fremont Raceway in the early 80s. Don't know if the clocks were fast but I remember that thing ran a 3.30 something at over 300 mph according to the announcer. It left a vapor trail that seared your lungs and ripped your eyeballs out like a hot pair of vise grips. He made 2 or 3 passes thruout the day. The car was painted like a police car fully equipped with 2 flashing gumball machine type blue lights mounted on the roof. Announcer did a "10-9-8...." countdown to launch it. It was a sight to behold.

[centerhill condor]

we sell 50% h2o2 all the time. hydrazine too..oh, maybe I've said too much. Me thinks the Nazis had a rocket plane that ran on hydrogen peroxide (maybe liquid oxygen lox) and alcohol...but my memory fails me from time to time.

[Norseman]

we sell 50% h2o2 all the time. hydrazine too..oh, maybe I've said too much. Me thinks the Nazis had a rocket plane that ran on hydrogen peroxide (maybe liquid oxygen lox) and alcohol...but my memory fails me from time to time.
Yes they did the ME-163. There are quite a few active groups building personal jet packs and go karts with this as a fuel.
Anyone want to run 250mph in the quarter mile in under 5 sec in a go kart??? :220v: :220v:

[Floored]

Anyone remember McClure who had a peroxide go kart in the Calif area. He only ran 4/10 of a sec blast and was around 200 in 1/4 mile on a friggin go-kart. Lets talk BALLS!!!

[ECeptor]

we sell 50% h2o2 all the time. hydrazine too..oh, maybe I've said too much. Me thinks the Nazis had a rocket plane that ran on hydrogen peroxide (maybe liquid oxygen lox) and alcohol...but my memory fails me from time to time.
Isn't that the little one that was made of wood and took off on a cart but then had to crash land? It would go straight up through the swarms of Allied bombers guns a-blazin'. When it ran out of fuel it would be above the bombers and then it would dive back down through them guns full on again.
Lots of pilots died in those. Some on the runway when the H2O2 tanks ruptured.

[ECeptor]

Any particular reason you picked a "Hondo" for this comment? How about a certain 24' Villan that needs a little more umpf according to the owner? :crossx: :crossx:
I was thinking of something that might handle the speed plus had a driver nutty enough to run it!

[Fast Freddy]

While browsing the web I found this hydrogen peroxide rocket car. I seen a couple run back in the 70's. They were notorious for the rocket thrust blowing the asphalt off the track surface. I don't know how they got it slowed down in time at the end of the track. I ones I seen never ran the full 1/4 mile and still went over 300 mph.
http://www.the-rocketman.com/images/kittycar.jpg
damn! this is just wicked!! that is some extreme acceleration!!! i have video of the budweiser rocket car that had a sidewinder missile strapped to it goin 0-760 mph in 15 seconds when it broke the sound barrier at edwards air force base in 1979. sorry richard noble and thrust SSC from great britian but you guys were 2nd. stan barret and the budweiser rocket from the USA were the 1st to the break the sound barrier on land.

[Marty Gras]

The "Budweiser" rocket car was sponsored by Hal Needham, but designed and built by Bill Fredricks. It did run (unofficially) way over "the speed of sound", but did not have anything powering it other than the "rocket motors". Hal gave me some "T" shirts and belt buckles that commemorated the "unofficial event", as we were friends. Stand Barret did drive the car and his son is the 'NASCAR' driver (Stanton Barret) that you read about. Bill had a "Butcher Shop" in the San Fernando Valley prior to his work with Hal and they continued their work together in the Company "Shotmaker Camera Cars". It all started 'way back' in the 1960's with a company called, "Reaction Dynamics". Remember when a "rocket powered go-cart" raced a Top Fuel Dragster at Lyons Drag Strip? We sure do have a lot of creative neighbors, don't we?