User:122.60.194.167/Wynn’s Courage of Australia Rocket Car the first car to break 300mph (500kph) in a quarter mile

Wynn’s Courage of Australia Rocket Car the first car to break 300mph (500kph) in a quarter mile

On 11 November 1971 when the second hydrogen peroxide rocket dragster, built by Bill Fredrick's company Fredericksinetics Inc. of Chatswood, California USA called the Courage of Australia driven by Vic Wilson, recorded a 5.107 second 311.41 mph pass during private testing at Orange County International Raceway, California. In doing so, it became the first car of any kind to run over 300 mph in a quarter mile.

The Courage of Australia was a 27 foot, 6 inch long, needle-shaped, moncoque-bodied dragster with a rear-mounted, hydrogen peroxide-fueled, silver screen catalyst; thrust rocket engine machine was built from parts of the Apollo and Saturn space rockets that developed 6,100-pounds of thrust and 12,000 horsepower. When word got out about what this wild machine had done, it brought the most daring of daredevils out of the woodwork.

The Courage of Australia was essentially a scaled-down Blue Flame clone. Nitrogen was contained in a spherical bottle mounted in the nose forward of the single front wheel with the hydrogen peroxide in a horizontal tank forward of the cockpit.

Vic Wilson was an Australian originally from Melbourne, he stunned the drag racing world with an unbelievable exhibition run at Orange County Int'l Raceway in Southern California. Wilson wheeled the "Courage of Australia" rocket dragster to a 5.107/311.41-mph charge that left fans gasping for breath. Top Fuel cars were averaging runs in the low 230-mph range at 6.30s and 6.40s (actually Don Garlits was the only driver in the 6.20s) and for some drag race vehicle to run a second quicker and 80-mph faster was unbelievable.

In summer 1973 John Paxon was at Irwindale Raceway trying out a new motor in the Courage of Australia. After lifting at the 950-foot mark, Paxon coasted through the lights at 5.52 seconds 250 mph. Unfortunately, when he hit the chute nothing happened. Then nothing happened again when he hit the back-up chute. When the first pilot chute was released it dropped down, welded itself to the nozzle, and prevented the back-up chute from deploying. Getting on the brakes hard, he wore through and popped the skinny land speed tires. The car stayed upright through the sand trap then pole vaulted when it hit a wooden beam at the end of the trap and landed upside down on its vertical stabilizer. Fortunately, due to the car's sturdy semi-monocoque construction Paxon was uninjured. The Courage of Australia was built with one chute tube over the rocket motor and the other chute tube under it. The problem turned out to be the new motor being several inches longer than the old one.

After the crash of the Courage of Australia at Irwindale, Evans bought the rocket motor and propulsion system from Bill Fredrick and had him install them in a 21 foot long dragster chassis built by M and S Race Cars in Azusa California.

The courage of Australia was then sent to Wynn’s Australia arriving on 13 December 1971 on its custom road trailer and it was shown around Australia as a promotion for Wynn’s doing exhibition runs in Sydney on January 1972, followed by runs in Adelaide, Surfers Paradise and Townsville.

In 1976 Bill Peart of Peart Holdings Ltd the New Zealand distributor of Wynn’s products in Auckland saw it and negotiated to have it sent to Auckland. He donated it to the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) in 1977 for all the public posterity and it is the final resting place of the Courage of Australia.