Steam to Jet

[spankybird]

As we continue our collection of 1/43 diecast cars, we added a few unusual cars. [;)] The Green Moster, owned by Art Arfons (local Buckeye boy) and ‘The Sprite Of America’ owned by Greg Breedlove.

The ‘Green Monster’ was powered by J-46 Westinghouse jet engine taken from the F-7U Cutlass fighter plane. They had 7,000 lbs. of thrust with 10,000 hp and used full military afterburners. They made a lot of noise and smoke!!!

On Oct. 5, 1964, Art did 434 mph in the latest Green Monster. Craig Breedlove raised the mark to 526.28 mph on Oct.16, and Art regained the record with 536.71 mph on Oct. 27.Breedlove came back a little more than a year later, averaging 555.127 mph on Nov. 3, 1965.Art was ready to re-take the record four days later, but a right tire exploded on his second run when he was averaging more than 577 mph. He survived, and made his last try on Nov. 17, 1966. By then, Breedlove's record was 600.6 mph. Arfons was doing more than 600 mph when a wheel came off his car. Again, he survived without serious injury, but he never made another run at the land speed record. He did occasionally do drag racing exhibitions, but after his car went out of control and killed three spectators in 1971,he quit entirely. On September 18, 1966, at Dragway 42 (local NE Ohio Drag Strip), Art did the standing ¼ mile in 6.89 second et at 230.16mph.
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Click on pics to enlarge them [^]

tom

[csxt30]

WOW, nice Tom ! I remember all that going on back then & before that I filled up Walt Arfonses' gas tank at the gas station in the Mobile Economy Run, I was in Auto Mechanics in high school then & they used us at different Mobile stations. Nice pics. Tom, & wonder if those cars came from Diecast Direct. BTW, it's interesting to know Tom used to drive these cars on the weekends back then!! [:)]

[spankybird]

Here are a few links about the Green Monster

http://www.americanjetcars.com/aarfon.htm
http://www.americanjetcars.com/arfons/art/art8.htm
http://www.americanjetcars.com/arfons/art/art11.htm

[cnw1995]

I used to work at a university that supported the construction of the Blue Flame, another speedster. See http://www.landspeed.com/blueflame.asp