On October 15th, 1997, RAF fighter pilot Andy Green got behind the wheel of a twin jet-engined wondership known as the Thrust SSC, and smashed through the sound barrier. And this is what it looked like onboard.
(You may have seen this video before, seeing as how it's nearly 17 years old now, but I don't care, because it is awesome and my Editor just said "time doesn't exist." I'm not sure what that means, but he's been dealing with the DMV all day.)
Developed by top engineer Richard Noble, the Thrust SSC set a world land speed record that still stands today, at 763 miles per hour.
The view in the video up top is actually from Run 61, which was technically just considered a "warm up," despite cracking the sound barrier (Runs 65 and 66 were laid down for the official record).
Everything about it is incredible, from the way the air visibly flows around the car and the wind howls at transonic speeds, to the massive acceleration up to 500 miles per hour, to the fact that it feels like Green has been deceleration for what feels like forever when he calls out "200 [MPH]," a speed most cars can never even hope to achieve.
Oh, and then there's the fact that Green is still walking to this day, despite the massive stones it clearly takes to be going very very very fast, feel a bit of wriggling, and instead of hitting the brakes, thinking "no, I think I'm going to push it to maximum afterburner."
The characteristic double-BOOM from the shockwave generated by breaking the barrier is fantastic as well:
Guuuhhhhhhh I wish I was there.
In case Green's abbreviations and accent are a bit hard to understand, here's the same video up top, but with added subtitles. It tells you exactly what he's doing, and how he had the best job in the world, ever.
Much of the same team that made the Thrust SSC has reunited to build its successor, the Bloodhound SSC, which will be attempting to break the 1,000 mile per hour mark sometime in 2016.
It's going to be spectacular.