I stumbled upon this vintage ad on Pinterest and wanted clarification on a number of points.
- Is (was) this for real?
- Was it really for sale?
- Did people who bought it survive?
Squeezing the Internet for more juice revealed that:
- Yes, apparently it was real. Below you can see Richard Timewell building his Space Ranger powered by four G8-2-130 Pressure Jets.
Here he is depicted taking a cruise in his Space Ranger:
And here’s where the power comes from: Eugene Gluhareff with his G8-2 Jet engine:
2. Further investigation that the first image above is an ad out of a Mechanics Illustrated Magazine, so yes, the thing was indeed for sale. It was delivered to your US residence for only 5,795 bucks (and I guess there was no need for drones to do the delivery).
3. As to whether people who bought it survived? Check out the picture below and try to decide for yourself.
Sources: Pinterest, Flying Into the Future
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To give you an idea of what $5795 was in ’78, every Chevy that year except the Corvette and Caprice Classic wagon had a base price less than that, and most could be optioned-up and still come in below that.
Source: http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/GM%20Corporate%20and%20Concepts/1978-GM-Full-Line-Brochure/slides/1978_General_Motors_Vehicles-28.html