Mythbusters Use Rocket Sled To Obliterate Ford Aspire - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 04-13-2009, 10:34 AM

this is just ridiculously cool.

YouTube - Mythbusters Rocket car pancake

Quote:

Jalopnik - Mythbusters Use Rocket Sled To Obliterate Ford Aspire - MythBusters

In case you missed last week's "Demolition Derby" episode of Mythbusters (quite possibly the greatest symphony of automotive destruction ever committed to film) they destroyed a Ford Aspire with a rocket sled traveling 646 MPH.

This episode once again proves Adam and Jamie have the greatest job in the history of the world. They revisted a myth in which two tractor trailers simultaneously collide with a opposite ends of a compact car at a high rate of speed and the carnage causes the two trucks to fuse, hiding the car between them. After improving their rig over the essentially failed experiment from three years ago, they proved you can smash two trucks together simultaneously, but didn't see any fusing or a hidden pancake car.

As they always do, the pair took things to extremes and traveled to New Mexico Tech's straight track rocket testing facility. The plan was to build a two stage, multi-engine rocket sled with a one inch thick steel plate at the front. When fired the sled would accelerate to around 650 MPH and collide with an ill-fated Ford Aspire, the entire event recorded for posterity on high speed cameras.

Let's be very clear here: This is probably the coolest thing these guys have ever done. The Aspire doesn't so much crumple as it sublimates from the force of the sled. The debris field is perhaps as spectacular, spread out behind and around the earthen berm, there's almost nothing recognizable of either the car or the sled. The metal plate is twisted into a little curl. The forces involved here are spectacular, and yet they did not get the metals to fuse together.

The combined man hours of every Korean who designed the original vehicle and every Ford engineer who adapted it for the US market, the program managers, the workers on the line who assembled it, every marketing maven, and salesman who made the Aspire possible have now been justified in their effort if for this experiment alone. (Thanks for the tip on the video Matt)

braisler · 04-13-2009, 10:42 AM

Oh man. I've got that episode in my queue. I've got to watch the whole thing now.

lostgirl · 04-13-2009, 11:09 AM

I love the Mythbusters!

inBOIL · 04-13-2009, 11:28 AM

I like the paint powder coming off the car as it's crushed.

shakran · 04-13-2009, 11:47 AM

i want their job.

Craven Morehead · 04-13-2009, 12:16 PM

whoa - awesome, overused but deserved in this case, wow!

FuglyStick · 04-13-2009, 01:29 PM

I've got a chubby

Reese · 04-14-2009, 01:22 AM

When the 2nd rockets fired.. That was epic.

SecretMethod70 · 04-14-2009, 05:17 AM

Epic... that's a great word to describe this.

bobby · 04-14-2009, 06:45 AM

Crash tests say a small car hit by a big car will not do so well....DUH !

xoxoxoo

SSJTWIZTA · 04-14-2009, 08:53 AM

D'oh!

the video has been removed by the user.

Cynthetiq · 04-14-2009, 08:56 AM

YouTube - Mythbusters - Compact Compact Rocket Sled

Zweiblumen · 04-14-2009, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobby

Crash tests say a small car hit by a big car will not do so well....DUH !

xoxoxoo

You haven't seen the results of Ford F-150 vs Mini.....

ZB.

biznatch · 04-14-2009, 06:59 PM

Wow. Yes, I want their job. It's always unbelievably cool and fun.

The_Jazz · 04-15-2009, 04:30 AM

Wow. I just sent that to 5 or 6 people.

Daval · 04-15-2009, 05:26 AM

my god that was awesome

FuglyStick · 07-21-2010, 05:11 PM

Part II--cutting a car in half with a rocket sled--

04-13-2009, 10:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
braisler Addict Location: Midway, KY	Oh man. I've got that episode in my queue. I've got to watch the whole thing now. __________________ --- You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. - Albert Einstein ---

04-13-2009, 11:09 AM	#3 (permalink)
lostgirl lightform Location: Edge of the deep green sea	I love the Mythbusters! __________________ We're about to go through the crucible, but we'll come out the other side. We always arise from our own ashes. Everything returns later in its changed form. - Children of Dune

04-13-2009, 11:28 AM	#4 (permalink)
inBOIL I have eaten the slaw	I like the paint powder coming off the car as it's crushed. __________________ And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

04-13-2009, 01:29 PM	#7 (permalink)
FuglyStick WHEEEE! Whee! Whee! WHEEEE! Location: Southern Illinois	I've got a chubby __________________ AZIZ! LIGHT!

04-14-2009, 01:22 AM	#8 (permalink)
Reese Delicious	When the 2nd rockets fired.. That was epic. __________________ “It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

04-13-2009, 11:47 AM	#5 (permalink)
shakran Tone.	i want their job.

04-13-2009, 12:16 PM	#6 (permalink)
Craven Morehead Custom User Title	whoa - awesome, overused but deserved in this case, wow!

04-14-2009, 05:17 AM	#9 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	Epic... that's a great word to describe this. __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

04-14-2009, 06:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
bobby Super Moderator Location: 18,000+ posts on TFP #1,2,3,4 and 5,but I'm not counting!	Crash tests say a small car hit by a big car will not do so well....DUH ! xoxoxoo __________________ "Life goes on,within you,and...with out you !" xoxoxoo

04-14-2009, 08:53 AM	#11 (permalink)
SSJTWIZTA Master Thief. Master Criminal. Masturbator. Location: Windiwana	D'oh! the video has been removed by the user. __________________ First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me. -Pastor Martin Niemoller

04-14-2009, 06:59 PM	#14 (permalink)
biznatch Junkie Location: France	Wow. Yes, I want their job. It's always unbelievably cool and fun. __________________ Check it out: The Open Source/Freeware/Gratis Software Thread

04-15-2009, 04:30 AM	#15 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	Wow. I just sent that to 5 or 6 people. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

04-15-2009, 05:26 AM	#16 (permalink)
Daval Junkie Location: The True North Strong and Free!	my god that was awesome __________________ "It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it." Winston Churchill

07-21-2010, 05:11 PM	#17 (permalink)
FuglyStick WHEEEE! Whee! Whee! WHEEEE! Location: Southern Illinois	Part II--cutting a car in half with a rocket sled-- __________________ AZIZ! LIGHT!