The Jet Trucks (1 Viewer)

Luke Nieuwhof

Nitro Member
I spent some time interviewing the drivers of three Jet Trucks recently in Florida. One thing I didn't know was that the NHRA instituted a 'speed limit' of 220mph. Which I guess makes sense if Motz was pushing 240. That's a lot of mass at very high speed. Amazing machines though.


 
Thanks for posting this. Indescribable when your fence hanging 100ft off the starting line and these monsters are doing what they do. Sensory and visual overload for sure.
 
Hard to imagine driving something that big, that fast...

BUT, I always hated trying to race on the track after a couple of jets.
I don't know if they are any cleaner nowadays than "back in the day"
It was like running on greased owl shit... :oops:
 
Jeff, I think that is why they started running the jets last.... You remember rocket cars? They did great unless there was a "malfunction" at the starting line & the motor dumped hydrogen peroxide all over the lane. Ask Larry Sutton about that happening at the old Irwindale.... argh Yes I saw it. Yes it was a mess.
 
I posted about this a few years go on Comp +, but it takes a different breed to drive one of those Jet Cars. In the mid to late '60s I helped a guy with his Tune Up and he came up to me one day and said do you want to race a Jet Car. I was 10 feet tall and Bullet Proof back then so I said "What's the deal"? He proceeds to tell me that Doug Rose has a deal at Raisen City (Drag Strip near Fresno Ca.) and the guy he was supposed to race had to back out (I think it was Ivo) and he needed someone to race. He told me we would run his car and it was worth $300 to me for three rounds. I said "Sure when should I be there"? We show up after riding around the Grape fields to Blackie Gejeian's world class facility that was about 20 feet wide and had maybe 4 or5 street lights (Not exactly Musco lighting) and dirt Pits. I figured that we would never get paid because nobody would show up. Well - I was wrong. Every field worker and farmer in the closest 4 counties started pouring in and it was wall to wall people. I go over to meet Doug and his wife and he says OK - this is how it is going to be. I am going to win the first one - you will win the second one and I am going to break the world record on the last one. Being a smart a$$ kid at that time I said "Why are you so sure you are going to win the first one, do i have to shut off". He just smiles at me and says "Don't worry about that". It is still daylight in July and so I am to push down the track to fire up after he gets warmed up when they signal. They push me down and I turn around as he rolls up toward the starting line. We stage up and I decided that I had a world class light because he is nowhere around, about 1000/1200 feet I smugly decide "Who does this guy think he is" I'm going to embarrass him in front of a giant crowd. THEN - all of a sudden the ground starts to shake and rumble and I see the nose of this thing and then a whole bunch of fire. I almost forgot to pull the 'Chute. Guess who was embarrassed. Then I go back and said "How am I going to win the second one MR. ROSE (you can't just Dump a Jet at the lights). He says " I am going to count to 3 before I go". Well he did and I won the second round about dusk. Now the announcer is really pumping this thing up and says the last round is going to be at midnight. That is about 2 1/2 hours away with plenty of time to sell a lot of Beer and have every one come by and ask which one of us is going to win. Doug starts to get ready and poured 5 gallons of Gasoline in with the Jet fuel. He walks over and says "Save your motor - this is going to be a world record if I can, it might cost me a motor". He then turns to his wife and says take the truck down and park it sideways at the finish line with the headlights on. She says that it is going to be too hard and take too long to get the truck around back next to the finish line. Doug then snaps back at her that he didn't say anything about being behind the fence Just do what he said. Now this was a fence made of wooden poles with 3 strands of wire streched to about 300 feet past the mostly dark short shut off. He fires up and "Wacks the Throttle" a few times and she starts coming down the track as I am pushing down. We stage up with this thing popping and sparking. When the light goes green I take off and just past half track I hear the wine and the thunder and I just cruised through as usual. It seemed like the Jet ran pretty far so as I drove on down to the end I didn't see him. He ran through the end and stayed mostly between the rows of grapes tearing the Chute off about 150 yards into the grape field. I ran as fast as i could and trucks with lights shined on him. They got a tractor and pulled him out. First thing he said was "Any body got a cigarett." The next thing he wanted to know was "How fast did I go" He ran 256+ on a 252 record. Really nice guy and he wanted to know if I wanted to go on tour with him. My wife looked at me (with that look) and I told him I had a full time job and a wife and kid as well as still going to College. It was a great experience and really too bad that Doug was killed in a wreck with his jet car at a circle track a few years ago.
 
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Wow, what a great story. I saw a jet car crash at then Firebird one year. Went over the wall on the right lane. He was OK, but that scared me. He was past the last grandstand when he lost it. I do remember seeing Doug Rose and the Green Mamba at Firebird. That has to be the most famous jet car ever.
 
I have never been a fan of circus acts at a drag race. But one year I was working at a Bristol race (IHRA) and Motz had been booked in. We were done for the day so when it came time for him to run, I went down to about 1000 feet and waited through the burner pops and smoke show.

About a second after he left the line my opinion of the whole thing changed 180 degrees. To see something that big coming at you, accelerating that hard and that fast almost broke my brain. It's just one of those rare moments when reality seems to be suspended. I still can't imagine how much air that thing was pushing and how it was able to do what it did.
 
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Saw Bob Motz run his truck on its what I believe was its maiden run in public. Really forget the year - google says 1979 - it was at Thompson Dragraceway. To this day I will tell you IMHO that it is, was, and continues to be the most insane "act", no offense to Bob, in Drag racing! 1engine, 2 engines, 3 engines, I don't care he is the best!
 
I spent some time interviewing the drivers of three Jet Trucks recently in Florida. One thing I didn't know was that the NHRA instituted a 'speed limit' of 220mph. Which I guess makes sense if Motz was pushing 240. That's a lot of mass at very high speed. Amazing machines thoug

I spent some time interviewing the drivers of three Jet Trucks recently in Florida. One thing I didn't know was that the NHRA instituted a 'speed limit' of 220mph. Which I guess makes sense if Motz was pushing 240. That's a lot of mass at very high speed. Amazing machines though.


I think thoses cars have had speed limits on them for a few years
 
So.... did Bob Motz just bolt a couple hundred pounds of weight on his 240 truck to slow it down to the speed limit??
If the old 100# is a tenth, what's 20 mph on a jet truck?:rolleyes:
 
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