Sorry Bill, you've been suckered by an urban legend.
http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/jato.htm
SEMIHEMI01@aol.com wrote:
>
> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 10:32:50 -0500
> It's that time again . . . . . They are finally out again. You all know
> about the Darwin Awards. It's an annual honor given to the person who did
> the gene pool the biggest service by killing himself in the most
> extraordinarily stupid way.
>
> The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded
> into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The
> wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The
> type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out
> what it was and what had happened. It seems that a guy had somehow gotten
> hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket)
> that is used to give heavy
> military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from short
> airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a
> long and straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his
> car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO! The facts as
> best as could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit
> the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash
> site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted
> asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have
> reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds
> well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional
> 20-25 seconds. The driver, and soon to be pilot, most likely would have
> experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under
> full afterburners, causing him to become insignificant for the remainder
> of the event. However, the automobile remained on the
> straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver
> applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving
> thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an
> additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet
> leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's
> remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone,
> teeth and hair were extracted from the crater and fingernail and bone
> shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the
> steering wheel. Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron nearly
> reached 0.7 Mach, attaining a ground speed of approximately 420 mph.
> DAK Content: "Only way to out run a Dak with a chebby" Bill
>
>
> SEMIHEMI01@AOL.COM> KB SuperCharged, 4.7L, 2001, QC,
> <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/semihemi01">the "DAK",</A> <A
> HREF="http://www.southernmopar.org/index.shtml">SouthernMopar</A>
-- -andy andylevy@yahoo.com Maintainer, DML FAQ - http://www.dakota-truck.net/faq/ http://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/dakota/ '99 CC 4x4 318 auto
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