Steve Fossett's ex-Spirit of America Up For Sale

Steve Fossett was known for his world records and adventures in balloons, sailboats, gliders, and powered aircraft. He was the first person to circumnavigate the globe via balloon, for example. Next on his list was to set the land speed record, and he died while piloting his plane in search of a suitable site for which to go for the record.

The tragedy of his death, where his plane first went missing, and the wreckage not found for months, brought out all of his friends to aid the FAA in the search; people like Burt Rutan and Richard Branson.

One of the interesting aspects of his ill-fated LSR venture was the car he was going to use to do it. It was, of all things, a used car, but not just any used car. It was Craig Breedlove's last rendition of his impressive line of Spirit of America record cars, and the car that holds the American absolute speed record at around 700MPH (the record itself is owned by Andy Green and the British Thrust SSC).

Breedlove's were a line of cars so famous, that at one point The Beach Boys even wrote a song about them that was on the charts for weeks. But that was then, and Breedlove was feeling the march of time. Always an interesting character, his later interviews about the whole process of trying to beat the Thrust SSC had the tenor of a man who knew he was running closer to an edge, technically, personally, and most importantly, financially.

Shortly after, Fossett announced that he was giving LSRs a try, and he was buying Breedlove's old ride. That all came to naught when Fossett was killed, but the car, of course, was still out there, and it looks like it's now up for sale.

Fossett rebuilt Spirit almost entirely, lengthened wheelbase and widened the track, and it still has the original General Electric J79 jet engine putting out 22,000 Lbs of thrust. I also notice that he did away with vertical stabilizer as well as the fins on the rear wheel spats. The upper wiring tunnel seems longer & wider as well. Who knows, perhaps lengthening the wheelbase does away for the stability that the missing fins would have provided

The jet car is for sale through an action sports marketing firm based in England called Project 100, for those of you that are interested.

Source: Jalopnik