Vampire Dragster
The Vampire is a jet-propelled car that currently holds the outright British land speed record, driven by Colin Fallows to a speed of 300.3 mph (483.3 km/h) on 5 July 2000 at Elvington, Yorkshire, England.[1]
Vampire is one of two near-identical dragsters built to be raced at the Santa Pod Raceway in 1980, the other being named Hellbender.[2] Measuring 30 feet (9.1 m) long, it consumes between 7 and 10 UK gallons of fuel per mile and delivers 2,500 pounds of thrust without the afterburner or 5,500 pounds of thrust with it lit.
The vehicle is powered by a Rolls-Royce Orpheus turbojet engine[3] from an ex-Red Arrows Folland Gnat paired to the afterburner from a Jaguar fighter’s Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour turbofan.[2] It can accelerate from standstill to 272 mph (438 km/h) in six seconds, a personal best set at Santa Pod Raceway.
Vampire was originally constructed by Allan ‘Bootsie’ Herridge, a pioneer British drag racer, as one of a pair of identical match-race jet dragsters in 1981.[4] The sister car “Hellbender” was involved in a crash in 1986 at Santa Pod, in which Mark Woodley (an experienced dragster driver) was killed.[5][3]
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