Here's a video I put together that land speed aficionados may enjoy. It's Art Arfons and his Green Monster on the Bonneville Salt Flats in November 1966. This is footage from the Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 14 and 15) of Art's week on the Salt. The Monster was not performing well, in part due to the double rear wheels Art installed to guard against the rear tire blowouts that had plagued him in '64 (twice) and '65. They were causing more drag than expected. Two days after this footage was shot, Art suffered the mother of all crashes at around 600 mph. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! "Art Arfons and His Green Monster at Bonneville, Nov. 1966" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JU0dCCqzU8
That man was always crazy. First drags, then land speed, then crazy tractor pullers Sent via my typewriter
Thanks for posting that. Last time I got to see that car it was sitting outside the Peterson Museum in the parking lot. Shame on those suits...now they want to buy more French cars....Art was hot stuff for sure.
Man that sure brings back memories. Got my drivers license in 1965 and followed this dual for the record as it was going on. My still unfulfilled dream was to drive a car like that at Bonneville. Nice work.
In words like that, 'crashed at around 600mph' just doesn't quite have the impact it should! When you think about it for a while 'crash and 600mph' are two terms that should never be in the same sentence. Great video mate, Doc.
Thanks, Doc! About "crashing at 600 mph," George Klass, who was on Craig Breedlove's Sonic 1 team, told me an interesting story that I don't think I included in my book. He said that one day a guy stopped by to see Sonic 1 in the LA warehouse where they were building it. This would have been in early/mid 1965. They were showing him the roll cage that went around the cockpit, and explaining how this would protect Craig in the event of a crash etc. The doctor listened, then shook his head. He said something like, "Won't make any difference. You crash in this thing at 600 miles per hour, the centrifugal forces alone will kill you. They'll scramble your guts." Craig fortunately wasn't around to hear this, and the guys didn't bother to tell him. As it turns out, of course, the doctor maybe wasn't correct after all, as Art Arfons' survival in '66 after crashing at 600 mph attests. And Breedlove himself crashed too at well over 600 (although not as spectacularly) in Sonic Arrow in '97, I think it was.
Thank you for the video. I can remember reading about the Green Monster and the record runs in Hot Rod mag at the time. Brings back a lot of memories. jerry
A crash is a crash, but I think that the interesting aspect of both Art's crash and also Craig's is that the cars "slid" down the surface of the tracks on their sides rather than any kind of a cartwheel or barrel-roll type of a crash. A crash like that, as the doctor mentioned, would "sling" the internal organs around inside the human body, possibly even tearing them loose from whatever holds them in place. And that situation would most likely be non survivable, and would be chalked up as "internal injuries"...
I think the doctor should demonstrate by crashing at 600MPH and then letting his injuries speak for themselves.
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