The Thompson-Voight dragster is a twin-engined

streamliner A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor " bullet trains". Less commonly, the term ...

dragster.Taylor, Thom. "Mickey Thompson, Fritz Voight dragster", in "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone", p. 31.

Mickey Thompson Michael Lee "Mickey" Thompson (December 7, 1928March 16, 1988) was an American auto racing builder and promoter. A hot rodder since his youth, Thompson increasingly pursued land speed records in his late 20s and early 30s.

collaborated with Fritz Voight in building the dragster, which had a fully enclosed body (except the steel front wheels), including a closed canopy. It was powered by a pair of Chrysler hemis, one facing forward to drive the rear wheels, the other facing backward to drive the front ones. Wearing number 555, the car debuted in 1958 at Bonneville, after "an impromptu stop", where it achieved on its very first run. The next week, the car turned in a best speed of , but broke a

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the cranksha ...

, leaving Thompson unable to back up his speed to make it official. While a reasonable success in

land speed racing Land speed racing is a form of motorsport. Land speed racing is best known for the efforts to break the absolute land speed record, but it is not limited to specialist vehicles. A record is defined as the speed over a course of fixed length, aver ...

, the car proved too slow for drag racing, never able to top high-9 second passes or (even with its body removed), when contemporary

slingshot A slingshot is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two natural rubber strips or tubes attached to the upper two ends. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the pro ...

fuellers were routinely hitting mid-9s.

Notes

Sources

* Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in ''Hot Rod'', April 2017, pp. 30–43. 1950s cars Drag racing cars Rear-wheel-drive vehicles {{automobile-stub