The scene unfolds at Santa Pod Raceway in the United Kingdom. A wicked-looking Monza is rolled up to the line. There’s a quick but loud explosion from the exhaust, which is so powerful it inches the car forward. You can’t hear a rumbling V8 though… because what you’re looking at is Sammy Miller’s rocket car called Vanishing Point… and he’s about to rip off a sub-5-second run down the quarter-mile.

This isn’t the fastest run of Slammin’ Sammy’s career. It’s just wonderfully notable, as it blew out all the windows in the race control tower.

His best run was a 3.58, which also happened at Santa Pod. That was in 1984 yet it still remains the fastest quarter-mile time… ever. Miller trapped at 386 miles per hour. In a damn modified Monza. What powered his rocket car? Mostly hydrogen peroxide, which is nasty stuff but allowed Miller to set insane times and lightning speeds.

Vanishing Point remains one of the absolute craziest machines to ever stare down a light tree and 1,320 feet of tarmac. And Sammy Miller was the person who hopped in, fired it up, and said “let’s do this”.