1960s Rocket Kart

Description

• Created a world acceleration record in 1965
• Based on a “fox kart”
• Powered by two Turbine-esque jet engines
• Housed in a museum for over 20 years
• Best Bid will be put to the vendor for consideration

We are told that in 1965 this remarkable little contraption aka the Rocket Kart achieved acceleration from 0 – 150 m.p.h. in 10 seconds thus creating a world acceleration record.
It is based on a “fox kart” and was powered by two Turbine-esque jet engines that were fuelled by a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. As for the braking, it was “assisted” by the little parachute now dangling behind it.
We reckon the only way you could have got a “pilot” on board would have been to divert a supply of nitrous oxide to his helmet!!

There’s not an awful lot we can say about this remarkable Rocket Kart, so here’s some text to give you a bit of background from a 1968 edition of Young World Productions Ltd Car Sports Book!

Test Bench

“Here’s a job in the “Whateverisit?” class…

The world land-speed record is at present held by an American named Craig Breedlove, who drives a huge jet-car, powered by an aircraft-type jet engine.  The great advantage of this type of car is that it needs no gear-boxes, or complex machinery to get the power to the wheels, and does not depend on how well the tyres grip the track to achieve its forward speed.  The thundering exhaust of the jet does the whole job, and does it magnificently as long as all you want is a straight run.  Steering a jet job is a problem that nobody has solved up to date, so you need not expect to see them on the Grand Prix circuits for a few years yet.  But the day will come…

However, a jet engine is still a complicated hunk of machinery, with fast spinning rotors that convert the energy of the burning fuel into the backward thrust that drives the car forward.

If you could use a rocket, you could do the same job without any spinning parts … Rocket thrust is pure straight-line push from the word go, just like the thrust you feel when you hold the garden hose in your hands, except that it’s proddier.

If you laid a moon rocket on it’s side, and fitted wheels, you’d have a really quick motor.  If you could find anywhere long enough and straight enough to try it out…

Mr J B Daly, who farms in Kent, is a man who’s done a lot of thinking about this problem, and he didn’t just stop at thinking.  He built a small, simple experimental job to try out his ideas.  A test bench on wheels, so to speak.

The two round objects at the rear are combustion chambers.  Into these chambers the gas which he uses for fuel is squirted under high pressure, where it mixes with oxygen, also coming in fast from a pressure cylinder.  The resulting mixture is something you wouldn’t strike a match in, if you wanted to stay healthy.  Explosive is the word.

However, when he is safely(?) in the seat, he uses an ordinary sparking plug to touch off the rocket mixture, and the exhaust, which shrieks out of the rocket nozzles has about the prod of a two-litre racing engine, if his speed up the straight is anything to go by.

By now Mr Daly must be used to people saying things like “I think it’s a bed-spring – with wheels”, or “That’s a pressure-cooker at the back, isn’t it?” and other similar ruderies.  But if his motor does look odd, it certainly moves, and with two rockets on the back, separately controlled, he could be on the way to solving the steering problem.  So more power to his arm – or more thrust to his rockets, if you really want to be technical.”

 

Our View

This rare little Rocket Kart has been housed by our vendor in a museum for over 20 years but now needs to find a new home – would you dare drive it? Or just keep it on show and admire it’s fabulously simple ingenuity?

Please note that at auction end, we will submit the highest bid to our vendor for consideration

 

Vehicle Location: Aberystwyth SY23– it’s the responsibility of the winning bidder to make collection / transportation arrangements directly with the vendor.

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