You forgot the knuckle-dragging part. Also driving stick is something deeply unsettling to them.

Thx, wish I could have seen it. I'm sure it will be up more often going forward.

Any time of day for when this happened? I live fairly close by and could take some more shots if/when it flies close by the house. Also curious about pics of the refueling system, what it looks like. Should be interesting.

A TOR anti aircraft system can go from stop to launch within about 3 minutes, so I imagine the Topol would be similar. I attempted to look up info on launch but nothing more specific than 'within a few minutes' was found.

I was wondering when someone would mention this problem. Happened to the Porsche Group C car of the era too. Long front and rear overhangs caused this. Someone explained it better than me but the long nose lifted off the ground when the rear produced too much downforce and flippity do dah!

When coalition forces go to attack next you can bet they will be hearing from Daesh/ISIS/Flavor-of-the-month 'Don't attack here, we have the pilot hostage here!' Then a day later several hundred miles away 'Don't attack here, we have the pilot hostage here!'

It was a really great aircraft, deserves it's own thread and story in itself.

Those are conformal fuel packs, you can also see standard long range tanks mounted as well. The pilot's probably on a long road trip somewhere.

Yeah, I'm just glad I was able to see them in the US and not have to cross the pond. Would have been difficult for 14 year old me. . .

When they retired the Phantom a small part of me died inside.

Yeah, I checked that out too. I remember the rivalry between Gilles Panizi and him and the team politics. These guys are putting their lives on the line and the racing team wants to manipulate their driver's emotions. . . Terrible.

Agreed with the competition he was up against, just incredible drivers in those days. Just wish he could have had the same opportunities other drivers had, I'm sure he would have been a world champion.

Beautiful stuff this, I used to co-drive/navigate in US pro rallys, brings back memories. If things got to spooky outside I would just concentrate on the route book and the rally odometer. . .

Maybe he can harvest a human heart from Dick Cheney's supply to extend his life. . .

Well said.

I'll gi you two fiddy!

Here's hoping it's much closer to the original, i.e. smaller. The current one looks like an overweight garbage scow. . .

Yeah, 'Steve's BadAss 'Murican GMCaddilacKia Dealer' pasted on the flanks of my new car is a real turn off when I'm buying a luxury car. . .

Agreed, drive around Virginia than through it. If enough people from out of state do this they will change.

I took one out for a test drive once. We picked it up from the local Ferrari dealership and toddled off down the road. A few minutes later we were making a beeline for Canada. Made it most of the way there before we turned around.