Maverick, land-speed record-holder Art Arfons passed away on December 3, 2007. He was 81 years old. An accomplished drag racer with his \u201cGreen Monster\u201d dragsters, Arfons turned his attention to land-speed records in the early \u201960s when he created a jet-powered version of the Green Monster.<\/p>\n
After building his jet car on a paltry $10,000 budget, Arfons went head-to-head with Craig Breedlove\u2019s $250,000 Spirit of America at Bonneville in October, 1964. Arfons established a new record of 434.02 mph that Breedlove, in turn, raised to 468.72. Over the coming months, the pair swapped the record back and forth until Breedlove finally set it at a stunning 600.60 mph. On November 17, 1966, Arfons attempted to beat Breedlove\u2019s new mark, only to suffer a horrifying crash that scattered the Green Monster over four and half miles. Amazingly, Arfons was not seriously injured, but subsequently he retired from land-speed racing to eventually focus on tractor pulling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maverick, land-speed record-holder Art Arfons passed away on December 3, 2007. He was 81 years old. An accomplished drag racer with his \u201cGreen Monster\u201d dragsters, Arfons turned his attention to land-speed records in the early \u201960s when he created a jet-powered version of the Green Monster. After building his jet car on a paltry $10,000 budget, Arfons went head-to-head with Craig Breedlove\u2019s $250,000 Spirit of America at Bonneville in October, 1964. Arfons established a new record of 434.02 mph that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":596804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,255,18114],"tags":[18435,18105],"class_list":["post-489835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-news","category-people","tag-people","tag-people-news"],"yoast_head":"\n