Improvised Rocket Motors by Desert Publications

It's a story that comes out of nowhere, gets passed around for a while, then dies out. The kind of story someone hears from a friend who read it in a magazine a long time ago. It started years ago, as a vague rumor passed from one guy to the next by word of mouth, usually in bars or during lunch-break bullshit sessions. The first thing you should know about the Legend of the Rocket Car is that it's been around longer than most people think.

Here then is the supposedly true account of how four crazy young guys built a real life rocket powered Chevy and lived to tell the tale… Sadly I’m unable to credit the story to anyone living, dead, or undead. Fearing self-incrimination, the author pleads the fifth. I hope it’s true…but if not it’s a ripping yarn and well worth a read. The first person account is certainly believable, and from what I know of science - it all checks out. Although I’d love the account to be true, it seems more like a well written short story in the vein of Stephen King. What a story! Knowing I might never find the website again., I copied and pasted the entire article into a word document and kept it all these years. After running all the backups for the night and signing off the checklist, I had an hour to kill before end of shift so clicked on the link and settled in to read the story with eyes hanging out of my head. Working the graveyard shift in IT Operations, an email from a coworker popped up in my inbox with a link to an obscure website and these words “Make yourself comfortable, it’s a long read but well worth it”. Fast forward to 2000 and I came across the story once again, but rather than a few sentences in yet another Darwin Awards news item, here was a detailed account of how it all went down. I didn’t think much of it at the time, suspecting it was nothing but an urban myth. I first heard the story in the mid 1990s. Details vary - but that’s essentially the gist of it.

If you don’t know of it - the story goes that someone strapped a rocket to a Chevy, ignited it in a desert somewhere and sped into a mountain and exploded. The rocket car story has gained traction over the years thanks to Darwin Award social media mentions, and Mythbusters tv show’s attempts to recreate the myth.

Improvised Rocket Motors by Desert Publications