1995 Darwin Award Winner
The Arizona Highway Patrol were mystified when they came upon a pile of smoldering wreckage embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The metal debris resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it turned out to be the vaporized remains of an automobile. The make of the vehicle was unidentifiable at the scene.
The folks in the lab finally figured out what it was, and pieced together the events that led up to its demise.
It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a Jet Assisted Take-Off unit. JATO units are solid-fuel rockets used to give heavy military transport airplanes an extra push for takeoff from short airfields.
Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for breaking the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant took the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, accelerated to a high speed, and fired off the rocket.
The facts, as best as could be determined, are as follows:
The operator was driving a 1967 Chevy Impala. He ignited the JATO unit approximately 3.9 miles from the crash site. This was established by the location of a prominently scorched and melted strip of asphalt. The vehicle quickly reached a speed of between 250 and 300 miles per hour and continued at that speed, under full power, for an additional twenty to twenty-five seconds. The soon-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dogfighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners.
The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately 2.6 miles (fifteen to twenty seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, completely melting them, blowing the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an additional 1.3 miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of 125 feet, and left a blackened crater three feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver's remains were not recovered; 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.
Ironically, a still-legible bumper sticker was found, reading

 

i remember that one.... duh!

I liked the 2 gay guys(homosexuals, ferrys, you pick)....1 with a gerbil in his butt, when the other one lit a lighter to find it..... the gas in his arse ignited and blew the gerbil into the other guys face causing burns etc.....

ya always wonder if these are true stories.....

Scot

 

This site is pretty good to check out if you read something that you think may be BS...

http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urba...gends/mbody.htm

 

[QUOTE]
Posted by Scot:
I liked the 2 gay guys(homosexuals, ferrys, you pick)....1 with a gerbil in his butt, when the other one lit a lighter to find it..... the gas in his arse ignited and blew the gerbil into the other guys face causing burns etc.....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Phantom
[B]
[QUOTE]
Posted by Scot:
I liked the 2 gay guys(homosexuals, ferrys, you pick)....1 with a gerbil in his butt, when the other one lit a lighter to find it..... the gas in his arse ignited and blew the gerbil into the other guys face causing burns etc.....

 

Reminds me of a women I was following on one of our Florida roads. She was doing 25 in a 50 m.p.h. zone. Her bumper sticker read. " If you don't like my driving get the hell off the sidewalk."

 

my favorite bumper sticker is "keep honking, i'm loading my shot gun!"...

 

Was there possibly a coyote or roadrunner involved in this scenario? Was the JATO made by Acme? BEEP-BEEP!!!

 

Yeah, the JATO story still makes me laugh but unfortunately, it's probably not true. It's pretty much been debunked: http://www.snopes2.com/autos/dream/jato.htm

Great short story though.

 

Don't forget about this link to the Arizona Department of Public Safety concerning Mr. JATO. http://www.dps.state.az.us/news/nr96006.htm