Image: The Iron Horse jet dragster engages its afterburner in Darwin, Australia When it comes to the genre of Jet Dragsters in Australi...
Image: The Iron Horse jet dragster engages its afterburner in Darwin, Australia
When it comes to the genre of Jet Dragsters in Australia, Pieter de Wit is the name that springs to mind.
The South African born resident of South Australia tours the country appearing at major events with his J60 (Pratt Whitney) powered jet dragster "The Iron Horse"
Not only is this a spectacular sight to see at a night event, thanks to the engines massive afterburner tail, but the build up and choreographed drama of the engine startup sequence is a real crowd pleaser.
I was lucky enough to put cameras on the car at Hidden Valley's Nitro up North event last year and as usual also had the best seats in the house with HighRPM's track-side cameras to film a couple of Pieter's runs.
There is an almost palpable tension in the air as the car is wheeled out on to the track. The crowd falls into a hushed silence, expectantly awaiting a noise to signal some sort of activity and then you start to hear a high pitched whine start to build as the thousands of jet propelled horsepower begins to awaken.
The chest vibrating staccato thuds of the BOOM created as Pieter engages the afterburner and inches the dragster towards the staging area are really something to feel and personally my favourite part of the spectacle. Then its all GO with a trail of flame as the car launches and accelerates down the track.Really awesome to watch.
It's a pity our video can't possibly do true justice to the experience, but for those who have never seen a jet-dragster run before it's as close to a taste of the action as we are able to bring you!
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