Driver on closed track. Don’t try this without professional help.
The Rocket Car… Almost Goes Wrong
Try This at Home!
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About The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car… Almost Goes Wrong
We had no idea that the power of Coke Zero & Mentos could move 2,400 pounds of cement blocks. Check out this test footage from February 2010. When the Rocket Car release mechanism jams, there is so much power, it shifts the plywood and 2,400 pounds of cement behind it.
And then check out The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car, to see what happens when everything goes right!
How Does This Work?
This is one not to try at home.
The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car uses a piston mechanism: a six-foot long rod sits inside a six-foot long tube attached to each bottle of Coke Zero. When the Mentos drop into the soda, the pressure tries to push the rod out of the tube. With 108 rods all pushing at once, that gives us a lot of power.
All that power is pushing against a wall braced with 3,600 pounds of cement blocks. So all the force is directed into moving the Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car forward. We get one big push for six feet, and then it’s all coasting from there.
Want to know what makes the soda fly out of the bottle? Will you explode if you drink Coke and eat Mentos? Click here to find out!
Don’t Try This at Home!
Seriously, don’t try this at home. There is a huge amount of power involved, and we don’t want you to get hurt.
What you can (and should) try at home is the Coke & Mentos geyser: you can get your own Coke & Mentos Kit, which includes nozzles just like the ones we use in our geyser videos, or you can click here to learn how you can make Coke & Mentos geysers with stuff from around your house.
Credits
The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car by EepyBird: Fritz Grobe (the short one) and Stephen Voltz (the tall one). Music by AudioBody. Filmed in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Studios.
Special thanks to the experimental research team from the Oddfellow Theater, including Mike Miclon, Matt Tardy, Jason Tardy, Dave Tardy, Casey Turner, Sid Edwards, and Brian Miclon. The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car was welded together from an odd assortment of parts by Nick Salvati with light-saber-wielding assistance from Mike Miclon.
And thanks to Coca-Cola Zero and Mentos for making this possible!
