Suddenly your $40-$50 bill to fill up gas every other week isn’t so bad: the North American Eagle jet car costs $18,000 every single run. That’s because it uses a 42,500 horsepower engine from airplane manufacturer Lockheed’s retired 1957 F-104 Starfighter, which uses up 160 gallons of fuel each minute. The car needs that kind of power though, because partners Ed Shadle and Keith Zanghi want to break the 800 mph land speed record for the US. All they need now is a driver.
Shadle, a former USAF pilot and amateur racer himself, would love to drive the North American Eagle. “It’s a lot of fun to drive,” he told the Times Online, “But if my age is stopping us getting sponsors, we have to remove that barrier. We’ll put some hotshot in the driving seat who looks like Robert Redford and see how that works.”
So Shadle and his Boeing engineer partner Zanghi are looking for someone between 20 and 40 years of age who is photogenic and entirely cool with the idea of, essentially, riding their $150,000 rocket, built over the last 10 years in a rented Seattle hangar. Just don’t forget to buckle up: the North American Eagle is projected to break the 800 mph record in around 20 seconds.
If that sounds like you, send a 400-word email detailing why and a photo to landspeedracing@gmail.com.
