Fritz Von Opel is one of those historical figures you just can’t help but love. Most famous for his Rocket Car, Von Opel was the grandson of Adam Opel, founder of the Opel Automobile Company.
Fritz built his first rocket car in early 1928, it was called “RAK.1” and achieved a top speed of just 75 km/h (47 mph). It proved the concept though and later that same year the RAK.2 was unveiled and topped 230 km/h (143 mph) using 24 solid-fuel rockets, interestingly it was also one of the first cars to use inverted wings to produce aerodynamic downforce.
Fritz moved to the USA after the outbreak of WW2 and went on to father Rikky von Opelwho would become a Formula 1 driver for the Ensign and Brabham teams.
Take a look at the video of the RAK.2 in action below, the commentary is all in German but that kind of adds to the feels of the footage.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
This documentary from the 1980s tells the story of MG, the mighty little car company that produced some of the most influential and popular British roadsters of the 20th century. The film starts with the very first MG and discusses the company’s long history, showcasing many of its most popular (and some of the less…
The Toyota FJ25 Land Cruiser was part of the 20 series Land Cruisers that first appeared in 1955 as the second generation of the Japanese company’s Jeep-inspired 4×4. The BJ and FJ Land Cruisers would quickly win favour around the world competing with both Jeep and Land Rover, the first automobile that many remote tribes…
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with a highlights reel to showcase the best of the Goodwood Festival of Speed for this who missed the livestream. The Goodwood Festival of Speed has grown to become one of the world’s pre-eminent motoring events. It’s a competitive hill climb held on the grounds of Goodwood House…
The Moretti 750 Gran Sport Barchetta is an exceptionally rare sports car, just three were made with this body style, and it’s believed that this is the only one with a lightweight tubular steel chassis. Motorsport historians have pondered that the example you see here may very well be the same Moretti 750 that wore…
Editor’s Note: We’re now in touch with Stephen’s family and they have the negatives safely in storage. At the moment it’s just a matter of them finding time to have a look through the boxes. We also picked up two more leads on some other historically important Britten images. If you have any Britten-related images…
The 1970s were a golden age in the world of international rally, it was just before the monsters of Group B would arrive and the cars being raced were far closer to their road-going counterparts. The heroes of the age include icons like the Ford Escort, the Porsche 911, the Datsun 240Z, the Alpine A110,…
