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Despite his accident, Mickey Thompson remains a hot-rodder. "It's an addiction, like dope or alcohol," he says. "I couldn't leave it alone if I had to. That car will do 300. It's a challenge. I'm betting my ingenuity against my own life."
* But far short of the world mile record of 394.2 m.p.h. set at Bonneville in 1947 by British Sportsman John Cobb in his 2,600-h.p. Railton Mobil Special. Cobb was killed in 1952 when his jet-propelled 6,000-h.p. speedboat disintegrated during a try for the world's record on Scotland's Loch Ness.