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"Problem Child" Top Fuel Dragster Boat Is 262 MPH Insanity

"Problem Child" Top Fuel Dragster Boat Is 262 MPH Insanity 9 photos
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
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Going fast on land is a whole lot trickier than in the air. Chuck Yeager was the first guy to fly supersonic in the X1 way back in 1947. By the 1970s, people could fly faster than sound over the Atlantic. However, doing the same on land comes with all sorts of problems.


Donald Campbell was a British speed record breaker that was the only person to have set both world water and land speed records in the same year, 1964. However, three years later, his life tragically ended while trying to set a new personal best in his Bluebird K7' jet-powered boat.

Why am I telling you this stuff? Because autoevolution has just stumbled upon another boat that reaches the same kind of speeds in just a few seconds by using top fuel dragster technology. It's called "Problem Child" and in 2013, the nitrous-fueled machine

As I've said in the beginning, going fast on land and water are two different things. Us humans like to build something called a race track from asphalt. It's perfectly smooth and gives excellent traction for our rubber tires. However, water is unpredictable – ripples caused by the wind, tree branches and crosswinds. Hitting a wave at over 200 mph is like slamming into concrete, which is why hydroplane crashes regularly disintegrate into nothing.

Today, we’ve managed to dig up some GoPro footage from on board a pass done in 2014. It's showing the Problem Child setting the astonishing 262.238 mph (422 km/h) record in just 3.5 seconds. Can a Bugatti Veyron do that? We think not, so you can keep your toys mister Mayweather.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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