Vampire (car)

The Vampire was a jet-propelled car that currently holds the outright British land speed record, driven by Colin Fallows to a mean speed  of  on 5 July 2000 at Elvington, Yorkshire, England.

Vampire was  long and consumed from 7 to 10 UK gallons of fuel per mile. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Orpheus turbojet engine, it could accelerate from standstill to  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. The sister car "Hellbender" was involved in a crash in 1986 in which Mark Woodley, an experienced dragster driver, was killed.

Vampire crashed in 2006 during shooting of a segment for the television show Top Gear, severely injuring its driver, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. Hammond's peak speed was higher than the official British land speed record, recording a top speed of . However, he did not officially break the British record as, according to the rules, two runs in different directions and an independent observer are required. Hammond crashed on his seventh run. Jeremy Clarkson joked that Hammond would have created the record for the fastest crash but would have needed to repeat the crash in the opposite direction.

In December 2007, the damaged vehicle went up for sale as scrap on eBay UK.

External links
 Thule: British Land Speed Record
 Bluebird Electric: Vampire jet-powered dragster
 Jalopnik: Hammond Vampire Jet-Car for Sale on EBay

References

Category:Drag racing cars
Category:Jet land speed record cars