Tesla showed a Roadster doing a kickflip in McGregor, Texas on Oct. 15, 2026, and the clip made the rounds as if nobody had ever put a rocket on a car and pointed it at the sky. It was presented as a first. It is not a first, and it is not close.
This video runs the receipts in 104 seconds. The Blue Flame at Bonneville in 1970, Gary Gabelich at 622.407 mph. Evel Knievel and the Skycycle X-2 at Snake River Canyon in 1974. Kitty O'Neil in the SMI Motivator in the Alvord Desert in 1976, a 512.710 mph two way average. Kenny Powers and the Super Jump at the St. Lawrence River in 1979, a rocket Lincoln that broke apart in the air. The Budweiser Rocket at Edwards in 1979. Sammy Miller and Vanishing Point at Santa Pod in 1982. Two honest notes on the captions: the Budweiser run was claimed at Mach 1.01 and was never recognized, and the Blue Flame clip in the video is a test run, captioned for the 1970 record event it led to.
Sources: Tesla official clip of the Oct. 15, 2026 McGregor demo. AP Archive film for Kitty O'Neil, 1976. Source uploads for the remaining runs are listed in the project notes: Blue Flame via the Pete Farnsworth collection, Knievel via an HD 8mm transfer, Powers, the Budweiser Rocket via a Discovery Turbo documentary, and Miller at Santa Pod.