I've seen a slightly different version of this. I wonder if it isn't
an urban legend based on what Andy Granitelli wrote about in his
autobiography. Seems he and his brothers bought a load of surplus
JATO bottles right after WWII. They fired one off in the parking lot
of their hotrod shop and unbeknownst to them, it was a dud. Based on
that experiment, they arrayed 12 of these besties up to the back of
one of their rods and wired them to all fire at once. Andy was driving
the car down a 2 lane highway with his brothers in another rod following
right behind so as to get a good view. He pushed the buttons and
then described the following events in language that had me rolling on
the floor. He describes flames reaching the telephone wires, a farmer
coming the other direction taking off across a corn field to get away
and how it crystallized the windshield and burned the paint off the
other
rod. He managed to get the thing stopped without wrecking. He then
went on to describe how they rigged the car with a selector to fire
one bottle at a time. They then hit the carnival and barnstorming
circuit with the car running on fairgrounds short tracks. He vividly
describes how he fired a rocket exiting each turn which would shake
20 years worth of pigeon turds out of the overhead onto the spectators.
Andy's autobiography is kinda old ( I read it in high school) but is
a RIOT and contains lots of info on his turbine car. Recommended. JGD]
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