[Humor-List] FW: Darwin Award nominee - 300 mph Chevy Impala (fwd)

[aspeer@mail.utexas.edu (Andrew J. Speer)]

>From: Evan Harris <eharris@cablehealth.com>
>To: "'#Humor List'" <humor@puremagic.com>
>Subject: [Humor-List] FW: Darwin Award nominee - 300 mph Chevy Impala (fwd)
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 96 16:17:00 PDT
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>Sender: owner-humor@puremagic.com
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>
>Well, this has absolutely nothing to do with Audis other than to remind us
what NOT to do next time we think about extracting that little extra bit of
performance from the old beast.

A.S.
>
>You all know about the Darwin awards -- it's an annual honor given to the
>person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in
>an the most extraordinarily stupid way.
>
>Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke (tm) machine,
>which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda
>out of it.
>
>And the nominee is:
>The Arizona (U.S.) Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal
>imbedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road, at the apex of a
>curve.
>
>The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car.
>The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene.
>
>The boys in the lab finally figured out what it was, and what had
>happened.
>
>It seems that a guy had somehow got hold of a JATO unit, (Jet Assisted
>Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy
>military transport planes an extra `push' for taking off from short
>airfields.  He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert, and found
>a long, straight stretch of road.  Then he attached the JATO unit to his
>car, jumped in, got up some speed, and fired off the JATO!!
>
>Best as they could determine, he was doing somewhere between 250 and 300
>mph (350-420kph) when he came to that curve....
>
>The brakes were completely burned away, apparently from trying to slow
>the car.
>
>NOTE: Solid-fuel rockets don't have an 'off'... once started, they burn
>at full thrust 'till the fuel is all gone.
>
>
>
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