From what I’ve been told the rocket cars were banned for safety reasons. I guess when you ignite a rocket car it burns whatever fuel it has and shuts of when the fuel is gone. So it relied on the calculation of space needed to get it stopped. Jet cars are shut off by the driver.
The rocket i saw at the old irwindale, essentially ran hard for an eighth mile , coasted to the finish line......and was a full second and a half quicker than a top fuel car....at least.
Top fuel was mid sixes at the time (full quarter), the rocket coasted into the fours.
(Strangely enough, the track record for the new irwindale 1/8 mile, is held by a jet dragster, at a track where the shutoff is marginal for a 140mph car!)
