eBay Find of the Day: Art Arfons' Green Monster LSR car
Art Arfons' Green Monster - Click above for high-res image gallery
Are you the kind of guy who thinks top speed is everything? Want car that can be called the fastest thing on wheels without exaggerating? Think a Veyron is fast? How about a Top Fuel dragster? At 320 mph, nobody would call one slow, but it wouldn't be half as fast as the car we have for you today. It's a genuine Land Speed Record (LSR) car that has done 650 mph! Is that fast enough for ya, slick? Well, it was fast enough for one guy named Slick, who topped 650 mph with the car at Bonneville in 1978.
Based on the Green Monster that the legendary, jet-engine-pioneering Art Arfons built and raced in the '60s, this eBay Motors offering was built from the pieces of that three-time record holder after it was crashed by Arfons in 1966. Art had already run 576+ in the car but crashed trying for more. After rebuilding the Green Monster, minus its adjustable front wing, Arfons never raced it again, instead selling it to Slick Gardner who ran it frequently, ultimately topping 650 mph in 1978.
According to the listing, it features a 15,000-pound thrust, 17,500 horsepower General Electric J-79 jet engine from a B-58 Hustler bomber that Arfons bought for $5,000. When Arfons repaired and tested the engine, it "rattled windows over a wide area and incinerated his chicken coop." It has a padded cell for a cockpit (but no straightjacket as far as we can tell) and it rides on LSR grooved steel wheels. The car currently resides in the parking garage at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and the the bidding so far has failed to reach the reserve at just $51,100.
Gallery: Art Arfons' Green Monster
[Source: eBay Motors]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James 5:04PM (9/19/2009)
Be careful where you point that thing...
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JTB 5:30PM (9/19/2009)
Why does it look like a majority the rivets or bolts on the body panels are missing?
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jim 5:40PM (9/19/2009)
I noticed the same thing. Also for something that is supposed to be aerodynamic, the gaps between the panels are wide and uneven which would result in a tremendous amount of drag.
Bizzle 5:32PM (9/19/2009)
I don't see a speedometer, for a car does 650 mph that seems odd...
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My_SS_RX8 6:12PM (9/19/2009)
it's right there next to the turbo boost switch and mach gauge.
James 10:48PM (9/19/2009)
This must be the world's fastest...syringe.
LiveandLetDrive 7:29PM (9/19/2009)
I've found my new daily driver.
"...the gaps between the panels..."
Aluminum tape.
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Jerry Hightower 10:05PM (9/19/2009)
I do not know if this is the same car that was involved in a crash at the old Dallas International Motor Speedway. It does have the passenger seat in it though. It was a different color back then too. I have several pics of Art and crew getting the car ready and packing the chute that fateful Saturday.
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AndrewNoNumbers 7:53PM (9/19/2009)
I'd buy it if it was street legal.
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studemax 9:15PM (9/19/2009)
Folks - keep in mind this is NOT the Green Monster that set all kinds of records on the salt. This is the one built from the left-over pieces of the car that set records, and no - Slick Gardner didn't have the guts to drive it that fast. Further, the "chicken coop" story is about an earlier Green Monster. And finally, the wheels are titanium, not steel.
In answer to one of the questions, the rivets are gone because someone stole them as souvenirs - the car used to be stored outside the NHRA Museum.
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Lou 1:24PM (9/25/2009)
I think we are headed in the right direction and should focus on reinovating all products used to power gas machines.
I have teamed up with green investors and have put toghther many projects and patents that is going to make a big change on the investors out look in what to invest in.
We plan to go International with our goals and have started our Green advance Tehcnology, along with Bio Fuels, Natural Resouces Program. And Wi-Fi, and advance Electrionic Design and solar production.
Lou Devora, Green Investors/ G&R Capital Investments 2009-2050
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paul34 11:06PM (9/19/2009)
wait... what?
Lou Devora 11:53PM (9/19/2009)
nice car,But what is the purpose, we need means of consurvation and eunity. like i said we can us our ideas to increase material usage by using reuable metals, glass, alumiun and plastic to build anything.
I think green is going to change the whole production on future devolopment from cars, homes, and buildings, There is going to be a world of clean air and no burning of fuels, the new power is going to be natrual energy, bio fuels and solar power, we will create a way for everything we build to be made from 100% recycled good. This will also give us the chance to redevolope and recycle the new green cars and green buildings in the future, this will be a reuse percentage of 50-100%.
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RamblinReck89 2:54AM (9/20/2009)
Sure it can do 650 mph, but what's its 'Ring time?
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accelerating_cubicle 12:29PM (9/20/2009)
I have to chime in with the Thrust SSC, still one of my favorite jet cars.
I think its silly that people put mach 1 stickers on their cars (yes you Ford), wishful thinking.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roblangham/2165688209/
break the sound barrier or shut up.
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