RPB2.net - The Arfons Jet Cars


Art Arfons, famous for putting jet engines on various vehicles, has his shop near the corner of Killian and Pickle road in lower Akron, Ohio. It's about a mile from my office.
The Arfons Shop

Art Arfons is probably best known for breaking the land speed record at 576 mph in 1965 using his "Green Monster" jet car he created. Sue and I accidentally found the Green Monster while visiting in California in 2004. It resides in the Peterson Car museum's overflow display are (in the parking garage) in LA. These are some photos I shot at the time:
The Green Monster   Green Monster Information
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Art Arfons is also known for adapting jet engines to various other equipment such as this jet powered pullin tractor:

The Green Monster tractor toy  
Toy version of the "Green Monster Pullin Tractor". Click picture for larger view.

Mr Arfons passed away in December, 2007, but the his jet engine craziness is still carried on to this day by his family. There are jet engines scattered about the backyard of his shop even today. And those of us that drive by his shop still see activity there.

Just a short while back, one of my co-workers who drives that way daily noticed a new vehicle show up at the shop and said to himself "nothing good can come from this". Yesterday, he saw the resulting marriage of that vehicle and one of the Arfons jet engines and was lucky enough to snap a couple photos with his iphone:

Jet powered Smart ForTwo   Jet powered Smart ForTwo profile
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Do not try this at home!
Jet powered Smart ForTwo profile
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