The Budweiser Rocket powered Car is claimed (by some) to be the first car to go supersonic (break the Speed of Sound).
Eighteen years before the Thrust SSC!
A ton of controversy surrounds the Budweiser Rocket Car...
and over the years many questions and arguments related to the car.
Was it an original design, or was it just a repaint...the SMI Motivator?
(Seen here in this 1973 photo)
Just how many Budweiser Rocket cars are there?
Where are they today and who has them?
Was it really the first car to break the sound barrier?
Is it even a "car"?
All I know is, back in the 1970s I fell I love with the whole Budweiser image.
I loved their logo, their slogans and all their advertising strategies.
I was also excited about their involvement in my other love: motor sports.
Budweiser paint schemes were my favorite.
I collected a lot of Budweiser "stuff" through the 1970s and 1980s
and I sent away for this great poster (below)...had it pinned to my shop wall for years.
I still have it today.
I think that poster introduced me to the Budweiser sponsored Rocket car.
Although I don't think (at that time) I knew much else about the car.
I was already a fan of the Blue Flame.
And I had an interest in fast cars and world speed records...who didn't?!
The Budweiser sponsored Rocket Car was powered by a hybrid liquid and solid fuel rocket engine.
although on early test runs it was unable to generate enough power to reach the current (at that time) land speed record of 622mph.
(The land speed record had been set at 622.4 mph in 1970 by Gary Gabelich in the Blue Flame...another bullet shaped rocket car.)
So a second rocket engine was added to the Budweiser car...adapted from a surplus military Sidewinder Missile
and positioned directly behind the Driver's head!
The car achieved an estimated* 739.666 miles per hour (Mach 1.01) on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force base in December of 1979.
To answer some of the questions posed at the beginning of this post, I have discovered a few facts on the web...
At various times there were debates over whether the Budweiser/Needham Rocket Car was an original.
or was it just a repainted "SMI Motivator".
Well, it seems that the Motivator was an earlier project co-owned by Hal Needham, and still exists today in private hands.
Obviously two LSR cars co-owned and designed by the same person would have had many similarities.
Sources state that there were in fact six Budweiser Rocket Cars produced:
one real race car and five fiberglass bodied copies for promotional use.
The real car is in storage at the Smithsonian and at least one of the five copies is in private hands.
One is on display at Talladega Speedway Museum in Alabama.
Owner Hal Needham, being in the movie industry, would have had easy access to companies that could produce these copies.
The biggest argument is over whether the car did or didn't break the sound barrier.
Former Test Pilot Chuck Yeager says it did. (He has a lengthy explanation)
Owner Hal Needham says it did. (But then again, why wouldn't he?!)
The US Air Force reported that based on tracking, elevation, weather, radar, etc at the time of the record attempt,
that the car was estimated to reach a top speed of 739mph
(which was about 30 mph above the estimated speed of sound at that time and place)
Unfortunately there is only one group that records and acknowledges a "world land speed record"...the Federation Internationale de L'automobile.
...and the FIA have rules about how you get and hold a land speed record.
First you have to set the record using specific timing equipment, and measured over a specified distance (speed/time trap).
You also have to repeat the speed, in the opposite direction, over the same course, within one hour.
And a "car" technically has to have four wheels.
Unfortunately the Budweiser Rocket car met none of the requirements for the FIA to support a land speed record attempt.
...
Anyway, years later, here I am designing these silly little KoolWheelz paper models
...and I have had the Bud Rocket car on my to-do list for some time.
But at this scale, its proving to be a challenging KoolWheelz model.
Not a beginner's build, like these things are supposed to be!
There isn't much I can do, to simplify the shape and style of the vehicle.
Its pretty simple already.
And the issue of how many parts isn't the problem either! lol
It all fits on one page easily.
Its just that every part is very small.
And its going to end up as another "advanced" model.
But...I know there are a lot of fans of Speed record cars.
So, here goes...
