Vampire the story Vampire is 9 metres in length and is
powered by a turbo-jet engine that currently holds the outright Non
Wheel Vampire consumed from 7 to 10 UK gallons of fuel per mile. Powered by a Rolls Royce Orpheus turbo-jet engine it could accelerate from standstill to 272 mph (438 km/h) in six seconds, a personal best set at Santa Pod Raceway
Vampire crashed in 2006 when Shooting of
a segment for the television show Top Gear s its driver Richard Hammond. Hammond did manage to
beat the official British land speed record, recording a top speed of
314 mph (505 km/h). 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. It
was joked that Hammond
would have created the record for the fastest crash but would have needed to
repeat the crash in the opposite direction. Since the crash the car has been back in the hands of one of the original
builders, and restored
to its original condition by FGR Motorsport Ltd based at Podington, Vampire was originally constructed in the late 80's by FGR
in Bromley Kent by Bob and Roy Phelps,Alan Herridge and Jeff Bosworth, who was also one of its
original drivers, Vampire was one of a pair of identical match-race jet
dragsters - the sister car
being "Hellbender" |