For those that dont know what they are, they are two jet powered trucks, seen here;
The first truck was built by Les Shockley in the late 80's, and the second was built by Les and his son Kent in the mid 90's. The first is powered by three jet engines, and is the fastest truck on the planet at over 350mph. The second, is powered by two jet engines and is close behind at over 330mph.
There is some very sad news I was just told about. The second truck, the red Chevy, was involved in a very serious crash two months ago at a drag strip, where the engines didnt shut off properly and the truck went into the sand trap, and the truck nosed in and cartwheeled end over end at over 300mph. Yet another reason why sand traps are more of a hazard than safety measure. I couldn't find any info as to the condition of the driver. The Chevy is typically driven by Les's son Kent. Here is the video of the crash;
http://www.careionline.ro/cp/37/1205...t-Truck-Crash-
The second sad piece of news is that the first truck, the orange and white Peterbuilt, was also involved in an accident, just yesterday. It was at the airshow in Westover, Massachusetts. What happened was after the run, one of the chutes didnt deploy, and with a 25-30 mph crosswind, the truck made a hard turn off the runway at well over 300mph, and according to people that were there, it hit the grass at an angle and barrel rolled several dozen times. Les was driving this truck and he walked away from the crash amazingly. Here is the video and news article;
http://www.wwlp.com/global/story.asp?s=8965924
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTqkB...eature=related
I'm very glad Les is ok, and I hope his son Kent is too. I hope they decide to rebuilt both trucks, but at a cost of a million dollars each, I'm not sure they will. I've seen both trucks in person and I'll miss them
I remember as a kid, seeing the Shockwave Peterbuilt on TV and it was something I had never seen before, and was a HUGE inspiration to think outside the box and do things differently, the way I wanted to, not what the status quo was.
The Peterbuilt was scheduled to perform this weekend at the airshow in Virgina Beach that Melissa and I were planning to go to.
