History "the blue flame" bonneville car

talkin with an old fellow last night who claims he drove "THE BLUE FLAME"
jet car, wasnt sure of the year or even the era but he did remember going 247 mph in it. He said it was jet powered that ran on natural gas? Any pics or history on the car would be cool. thanks, lance

 

How do you not remember when you drove a freaking jet car?

http://www.bluebird-electric.net/gary_gabelich.htm

Google is your friend

 

The Blue Flame, driven by Gary Gabelich, was propelled by a Liquid Natural Gas rocket engine which reached an average speed of 622.407 mph (998.341 km/h) on October 23, 1970:

 

247mph....622mph.... If I didn't have a speedo in front of me I wouldn't be able to tell either.

 

And later in life, if i'm not mistaken, Gary was killed in a motorcycle accident in the San Pedro area. (?)-------------Don

 

Apparently the car wasn't the only thing shooting hot gases out the rear end. The referred article says he died in a car accident in 1984.

 

I remember being a 4th grader and looking up "world's fastest car" in an old copy of the Guiness Book of World Records - and seeing THAT. Still cool as hell to me!

 

FADED ... IMHO, non-wheel driven LSR cars are kinda O/T for the H.A.M.B. ... that stated, the Blue Flame is a significant part of Dry Lakes Racing history ... so here's a few more pics culled from the internet:





At the 2007 Goodwood Festival Of Speed:

 

Ummm...yeah. Bullshit flag on this one...

 

The car itself is in a museum in Germany, not so far from me. Couldn´t believe my eyes when I saw it there.

 

Sadly, near the end, Ronald Reagan didn't remember being president...but it sounds like b.s. to me

 

yeah yeah, wutever, the old guy was cool to talk to, and i knew i could go to my brother hambers for info, so thanks for the info. Next time i go in there i will grill him for more info

 

I stood in line with my Dad to see the Blue Flame at the Minnesota state fair in the seventies. Dad sure was patient. I am sure he wasn't interested but I still remember how cool that car was.

Brad

 

My dad and Gary were friends dad was a photographer at lion,orange co. and irwindale... when I first meet him ( I was Just a kid) he was driving the beach city Chev. corvette funny car until it burnt to the ground Gary got class in his eyes from his goggles breaking from the heat. he also drove drag boats and of course the blue flame I believe he was killed on the traffic circle in long beach on his harley davidson. his mom Had premonition's about him dying in an accident... he was a great guy as a kid I remember his helmet with those purple feathers sticking out of it.

 

I met a guy at a carousel convention. It was boring as hell, but I was talking this guy at dinner and he said he built cars..... " What kind of cars? "
" Ever hear of the Blue Flame? "
"Hell yes!" I was talking to one of the builders.. a guy named Farnsworth

 

As a kid growing up in the 70s I had the picture of the Blue Flame from the Guinness's book of world records. I built a "gig" that was a pretty good likeness (for a 10 year old). I painted it blue and called it the "Blue Flame", of course. I don't think I ever lost a race with that one.

 

i think i saw that car in the Museum of Science and industry in Chicago once? i was really little, i could be wrong

 

I guess my question would be, maybe this old man drove it another time, not necessarily the record breaking run that was recorded. Who knows. Might not even be the same car he was talking about.

 

I met Gary a few times, He did get into a Motorcycle accident, but he spent a few days in the hospital but was ok.. he later died in a car accident..
I have lots of pictures of the Blue Flame in storage..

 

I sure remember it from when I was a kid. The name came back up when
we were building my kids Jr. dragster. Either that or my kid and his buddies
got caught trying to light farts. I'll never tell...

 

Just a reminder that the great man, Gary Gabelich passed away 27 years ago today.

A very well put together story with some interesting comments http://thevelvetrocket.com/2009/06/27/gary-gabelich/

 

Wow, that was an awesome read all the way to the end. Gabelich was one of my heroes as a kid. THANKS Kurtis.

 

I met Gary at OCIR the night he almost died. He was driving the Beach Cities Corvette Funnycar. Pat Foster built and drove the car originally. The car exploded about mid track right where I was standing. The car kept going and turned left at the end of the track. I saw the fire ball go through the field, up the embankment and onto the freeway. Only saw an orange glow until I got up the top of the enbankment. Gary was out of the car and was really shook up. The car burned to the ground on the freeway. The funny part was he got a ticket. No shit there are pictures of him getting a ticket from a motorcycle cop for littering the freeway and driving an unregsitered motor vehicle. It was in more than one of the magazines. The CHP later dropped the charges after it became an embarrassing situation. Like he had any control over where the car was going. He couldn't see a thing. Also published were pictures of the tracks the car made when it went off the track. They went right between the two three foot poles that held the OCIR sign that you saw from the freeway. If he had hit one of those poles at the speed he was going he wouldn't have raced again.

 

I don't care who you are that's funny stuff right there,Larry the cable guy

 

I had a poster out of HRM on my wall as a kid.

 

When I was in second grade back in the mid-'70s, I used to check out a book with land speed racers in it...all the time. I kept checking out the same book just to look at The Blue Flame and Spirit Of America. I wish I could find that book.

Twenty years later, I was a soldier serving in Germany. A German friend told me about a "blue rekord car" in a museum. Hmmmm...Europe. "Is it a Malcolm Campbell Bluebird?" "Yes". Imagine my surprise when I saw that rocket.

 

Could it have been a Blue Flame Chevy