Re: OT: DARWIN AWARD goes to Chevy driver.

From: Brian Gonzales (gonzales@thuntek.net)
Date: Mon Apr 22 2002 - 08:19:18 EDT


Can anyone say gullible? This the oldest Urban Legend on the net.

On Mon, 2002-04-22 at 06:06, 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>
>



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