Sammy Miller Rocket powered dragster

• Born April 15, 1945

• Test pilot, Designer, Builder and Driver of
  • Rocket Funny Cars
  • Dragsters
  • Motorcycles

• World ¼ mile record holder since 1975

• World ice speed record since 1981

Pretty fast but still not fast enough. By our ultimate measure, a modern Top Fuel dragster is perhaps a Porsche 911. So if you're now wondering what can top it, allow me to introduce to you the late Sammy Miller and his car, the appropriately titled 'Vanishing Point.' Vanishing Point was Sammy's dragster but instead of powering it by something as inefficient and cumbersome as the internal combustion engine, he thought he'd cut to the chase and use rockets instead. One day in 1981 he went to place in the US called Lake George, lit the fuse and held on tight. An impressive 1.67 seconds later he was doing 247mph. Suitably enthused by this, in 1984 he went one better and reached 386mph in 3.58sec within the specified quarter mile. To this day it is the fastest drag run in history. So Vanishing Point is almost certainly the fastest accelerating device that can have any claim to being a car. Every time Sammy drove it, his nose and ears bled.

Some people will try and tell you that Ferarri's and Porche's accelerate quickly....or even Formula 1 or IndyCar....don't believe a word of it. With roughly 25,000 hp to play with the Vanishing Point rocket car makes all others look like toys.

• 0-60 mph 0.16 seconds

• 0-100 mph 0.36 seconds

This man holds all th acceleration records and to top it all, is one of the friendliest guys in the pits. Always willing to stop and talk to the fans. How near have you ever gotten to a Formula 1 or IndyCar driver....

• 1/8 mile record 1.60 seconds 319 mph

• 1/4 mile record 3.58 seconds 386 mph

The latter run performed at the premier drag strip in the UK, SANTA POD