LOL ... The guy thinks he started the story in 1978.  I "Heard" a version in 1959 where an airman at Mountain Home, Idaho attached a
JATO bottle to his '50 ford .... overran the runway and disintegrated.

I'd bet the true "1st" telling was very shortly after the JATO intered service.

Mike
'84 GL

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@RELITECH.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 8:27 PM
Subject: Re: any flux capacitor conversions available?

> If you have an hour to kill, read about this guy's claim to know the origin
> of the story...
>
> http://www.bored.com/rocketcar/
>
> TomC
> tcarrington@relitech.com
> http://www.relitech.com/tomc
> http://volksweb.relitech.com
> 85 Vanagon Crew Cab
> 82 Westy diesel=>gas conversion
> 81 Checker A-11 (Taxi)
> 65 Notchback
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stan Wilder [SMTP:wilden1@JUNO.COM]
> > Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 3:02 AM
> > To:   vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> > Subject:      Re: any flux capacitor conversions available?
> >
> > There was a memo put out the employees at the General Dynamics plant in
> > Grand Prairie Texas about two years ago, I'm going to try to repeat as
> > best I remember what the memo said.
> >
> > Recently the authorities discovered a large grey stain on a rock face of
> > ,,, Mountain rock face. After further investigation it was discovered
> > that the stain was comprised of a 64 Chevrolet and the remaining parts of
> > the same vehicle.
> > Upon further investigation the authorities discovered that the owner of
> > the vehicle had recently attended a US Air force auction and purchased a
> > surplus JATO cartridge.
> (snip)