Arfons Dies

[cosworth151]

Three-time world-land-speed record holder and drag-racing legend Art Arfons died Monday, Dec. 3, in his native Akron, Ohio. He was 81.

Although known for setting the unlimited land-speed record three times, Arfons made significant contributions to drag racing, tractor pulling and powerboat racing during a five-decade career.

Together with his stepbrother, Walt Arfons, Arfons pioneered the use of World War II aircraft engines in race cars. When the original NHRA Safety Safari toured the Midwest in 1953, Art stunned the visiting Californians with a world-record speed of 144 mph from his "Green Monster," a six-wheeled, 12-cylinder, rear-engined Allison dragster. The Allison was the engine used in the P 38 and P 40 fighter planes. That same season, an Illinois promoter promised $500 for an appearance. Since he didn't own a trailer, Arfons flat-towed the Green Monster more than 300 miles and collected the first significant appearance money ever paid to a drag racer.

Arfons contributed two important safety devices now mandatory for dragsters: the overhead roll cage (1954) and the parachute (1959). He also set Top Speed at the National Championships three years in a row, climaxed by runs of 172 mph and 170 mph at the '59 event, after which the NHRA permanently banned aircraft engines.

In 1962 at Bonneville, Arfon's first jet dragster topped 342 mph, the fastest run ever recorded by an open-cockpit vehicle. From 1963-'65, he staged an ongoing Bonneville battle with Craig Breedlove that saw the land speed record change hands six times. Arfons ultimately upped his average to 576.553 mph, only to watch Breedlove raise the mark to 600.601 mph. Ten days later, Arfons clocked 615 mph before losing a wheel and surviving a violent crash.

He later attached pontoons to the Monster and tried for the water speed record.

Arfons influenced tractor pulls, much as he had drag races and Bonneville contests. He became a tractor-pull champion, and his name and innovations have spurred tractor pulling's evolution into a major spectator sport.

Arfons is an inducted member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, National Tractor Puller Association Hall of Fame and the Summit County (Ohio) Sports Hall of Fame.

Art was a humble, simple man who did extraordinary things with contraptions he built in his back yard. He was sometimes refered to as "the junkyard genius of the jet set." His influence extended from the fastest of land-based motorsports to one of the slowest. His son Tim has put jet engines on ATVs and Jet Skis. His daughter Dusty has been involed in tractor pulling.

He was a true one of a kind.

[Steven Roy]

I knew about the LSRs but not the other stuff.  As I said about Evel Knievel another of the great originals is gone.

His son sounds like a chip off the old block.  A jet engine in a jet ski?? 

[cosworth151]

How about his jet powered bar stool?

[cosworth151]

I was at the Peterson Automotive Museum in LA today. One of Arfons' Green Mosnster jet cars is on display. In case you were wondering what kind of beast This man could build, here it is. It has to be one of the most sci-fi looking race cars ever built. Puts Speed Racer's Mach 5 to shame.

You might notice a small, white square on the car under the canopy. It's a hand written note:

"R.I.P. Art. God speed."