The decade is the 1960s. You’re a GM development engineer and you need to evaluate a vehicle’s performance in a strong crosswind. What do you do? Drive past a giant fan multiple times? Nope. Naturally, as any normal person would do, you strap a rocket to the side of the car, and record the results.
As seen above, the miniature rocket mechanism strapped to the side of a Chevy Corvair pushed out pressure anywhere from 50 to 200 pounds, which could be controlled. The rocket could also be mounted anywhere on the car, while instruments in the back seat recorded the happenings.
Would be nice to see some footage of these bad boys in action.
Comments
They used to do all sorts of crazy stuff.
To check the effects of a rear wing on the first Trans Am they welded a rod to the rear axle and cut a whole in the floor to let it up in the back seat area. They then put someone back there to read the scale on it as they drove faster. This way they could see the effects of down force.
GM also had a white test step van that held many advanced things for testing. They used to sneak it out for Jim Hall and Rodger Penske and Donahue to use on their race cars to learn some pretty advanced chassis tuning.
I would Recommend the Book Chevy Racing? 1957-1970 by Paul Van Vallkenburge.
It is available in reprint from the SAE Society. Original copies are in the hundreds.
Lot of neat stories in this book.
Didn’t the “Mythbusters” tested a Chevy powered by a rocket on its roof?
Damn looks like working for GM was fun, crazy, dangerous, and exciting