Myth Title:Jet-Assisted Chevy
Myth Description:A motorist attached a Jet-Assisted Take-Off (JATO) rocket bottle to his '67 Chevy and was found miles from the scene in a smoldering wreck.
MythBusters on the bust:
Guests:- Officer Bob Stein, Arizona Dept. of Public Safety
- Andy Granatelli – holder of 21 world speed records including top speed in a street legal vehicle (241 MPH)
- Eric Gates – licenced rocket operator
- Dirk Gates – licenced rocket operator
Hypothesis:A 1967 Chevy Impala will accelerate to 350 mph and possibly become airborne when propelled by rocket thrust.
Procedure/Experimental Design:Unable to procure a military JATO unit producing 1000 lbs. of thrust, the MythBusters substitute it with three federally restricted rocket motors, producing 1,500 lbs. of thrust for 4 seconds. They attached these to a vehicle and operated it via remote control from a helicopter.
Results:The vehicle operated as advertised and nearly outran the helicopters top speed of 130 miles per hour when the rockets were fired. Vehicle did not become airborne or crash.
Conclusion:While a JATO system would certainly be able to propel a stock car faster than its own engine, the 350MPH speed in the myth would be unattainable without an even more powerful system or one which could be used for a longer period of time.
Busted or Not Busted:BUSTED | |
Highlights of the bust:
Best quotes by the MythBusters:
- Adam: "This is so exciting! I'm gonna have a 'grinectomy'."
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Did the MythBusters get it right? How would you have busted this myth differently? Share your experiment design for how you would prove/disprove this myth:
- THE Rocketcar Myth: there was a series of pages, years ago, explaining the entire thing, on Geocities, iirc...
It wasn't a road-car, it was a hand-pump rail car, from a mine.
3 kids, 1 junkyard, some welding, some improvised brakes, a couple of JATOs, some 50-cal gunpowder for ignition...
( they were testing without a rider first, thank God, but didn't understand how powerful JATOs are )
the rail-car "flicked", like an elastic, from its start position, at the mine
when it hit, it was partially airborne
it took down the old mine's entrance
they grabbed the wires used for igniting the thing & burnt rubber getting away
( hence the car-myth part )
The brakes essentially vaporized ( 1 yard long friction surfaces pressed against the rails, possibly tire-tread )
The one who wrote the pages pointed out that no obit existed for the event, no police file, none of the things that a motorist-into-cliff would result in.
He was now a science teacher.
Every now & then the other instigator ( the 3rd kid wasn't that bright: helpful, but not instigator ) would send something to him about it...
... when he got the Back to the Future tape, he chased out his wife+kid(s), and sat to watch it, calling it the most difficult thing he'd ever sat through
apparently the 3rd kid had gone to California, and had talked, and the truth had become the basis for the 2nd or 3rd film ( never having seen either, I don't know which )
The nearby army base apparently dismantled the wreck ( he never saw them, but no one else seemed likely to have removed the railcar ) soon after.
He found the idiocy of a non-verified Darwin Award to be worth countering.
They never used the second JATO, I think they returned it to the base, as an "accidental inclusion" or something.
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