The Vampire is a jet-propelled car that currently holds the outright British land speed record, driven by Colin Fallows to a mean speed of 300.3 mph (483.3 km/h) on July 5, 2000 at Elvington, Yorkshire, England.[1]
Vampire was 30 feet (9.1 m) long and consumed from 7 to 10 UK gallons of fuel per mile. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Orpheus turbojet engine, it could accelerate from standstill to 272 mph (438 km/h) in six seconds, a personal best set at Santa Pod Raceway.
Vampire was originally constructed by Allan 'Bootsie' Herridge, a pioneer British drag racer, as one of a pair of identical match-race jet dragsters in 1981.[2] The sister car "Hellbender" was involved in a crash in 1986 in which Mark Woodley, an experienced dragster driver, was killed. [3]
Vampire crashed in 2006 during shooting of a segment for the television show Top Gear, severely injuring its driver, Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond. Hammond did manage to beat the official British land speed record, recording a top speed of 314 mph (505 km/h).[4] However, he did not officially break the British record as, according to the rules, two runs in different directions and an independent observer are required. Hammond crashed on his seventh run. It was joked that Hammond would have created the record for the fastest crash but would have needed to repeat the crash in the opposite direction.
In December 2007, the damaged vehicle went up for sale as scrap on eBay UK[5].
Allan Herridge was only one of a number of leading racers of the time that constructed Vampire and Hellbender. Amongst the others was Colin Fallows, as well as Santa Pod's Roy Phelps. Richard Hammond did not break any records when driving Vampire, nor was there any attempt to. The BBC installed telemetry equipment which recorded only a peak speed (of 314mph), not an average speed over the required minimum distance in the UK, currently the flying 1/4 mile. Colin Fallows peak speed when he set the UK outright record in July 2000 at an average of 300.3mph was 331mph. With an 800 yard distance under power and a terminal of 314mph, Vampire would only have been averaging around 260mph over the previous 1/4 mile distance on Richard Hammond's 314mph terminal speed run. Out of interest Vampire's sister car Split Second, using an afterburning RR Viper turbojet, posted an average speed of 338.74mph and a terminal of 362mph with Mark Newby at the wheel at RAF Fairford in July 2006.