Editing JATO (section)

==Urban legend==
The [[JATO Rocket Car]] is an [[urban legend]] that relates the story of a car equipped with JATO units that is later found smashed into a mountainside. This story is often given as an example of a [[Darwin Awards|Darwin Award]]; it appears to be apocryphal, with no basis in fact.<ref>{{cite web 
  |url=http://www.snopes.com/autos/dream/jato.asp 
  |title=Carmageddon 
  |publisher=snopes.com
}}</ref>

The legend has been examined several times on the [[Discovery Channel]] show ''[[MythBusters]]''. For the first attempt, in a 2003 pilot episode, the crew replicated the scene and the thrust of the JATO with some commercially available amateur rocket motors. The car did go very fast, outrunning the chase helicopter, but nowhere near the 300&nbsp;mph (500&nbsp;km/h) reported in the original story, and failed to become airborne. The myth was revisited in 2007, using a different configuration of rockets in an attempt to make the car fly; it exploded before reaching the end of its launch ramp. The myth was again revisited in 2013 in the 1st episode of ''Mythbusters'' Season 12, as a celebration of their 10th year on the air.

A JATO-equipped 1958 [[Dodge Coronet#Fourth generation (1957–1959)|Dodge Coronet]] car on the [[El Mirage Lake|El Mirage dry lake]] was used for a TV advertisement to demonstrate the power of their "total contact" brakes. This was broadcast during ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'' in the late 1950s.
<ref>{{YouTube|ZGEjFh-GCUo|title=Dodge presents The Lawrence Welk Show}}, segment begins at 30:00</ref>