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Green Mamba jet car owner Doug Rose, 80, formerly of Tampa, dies in Michigan crash caught on video

 
Times file (2006)\uFEFF Doug Rose, seen here behind the wheel of his Green Mamba jet car, died Friday when it crashed during an exhibition event at the Norway Speedway in Michigan, authorities said. Rose, 80, lived in Tampa for many years.\uFEFF
Times file (2006)\uFEFF Doug Rose, seen here behind the wheel of his Green Mamba jet car, died Friday when it crashed during an exhibition event at the Norway Speedway in Michigan, authorities said. Rose, 80, lived in Tampa for many years.\uFEFF
Published Aug. 21, 2018

Doug Rose called the Green Mamba his life and livelihood.

Rose built the jet engine-powered drag racer from scratch, and for decades, including years spent in Tampa, the fire-breathing machine provide a comfortable income.

When Rose was diagnosed with cancer last year and started chemotherapy treatment, he was determined to keep touring with the Green Mamba until he could no longer climb into the cockpit, his wife said.

"He always said, 'If something happens, I hope it happens in my car,' and God let it happen that way," said Jeanne Rose, 47.

On Friday, the 80-year-old Rose died when his beloved beast crashed at a Michigan race track.

He was driving the Green Mamba at the Norway Speedway for a pre-race exhibition event when he failed to make a turn and struck a guardrail.

Authorities were working to confirm Rose's cause of death but suspect he had a heart attack just before the crash, his wife said.

In a two-minute video posted on YouTube, the Green Mamba's engine roars to life, spits its trademark burst of fire and takes off down the track's first straightaway. People in the stands scream as the car veers off the track and bursts into flames.

Jeanne Rose ran to the car and helped pull him out. She said she knew right away: "My husband was not there."

The death ended a lifelong love affair with speed that motivated Rose to create the Green Mamba, an icon of 1960s drag racing.

Born in Milwaukee, he built the car in 1968 in a body shop called Korky's in North Hollywood, Calif., down the street from a bar. When he wasn't at the bar, he was at the body shop.

It took six months, 3,000 pounds of metal and a $400 surplus engine from a Navy fighter jet. The car boasted 6,500 pounds of thrust and would reach speeds of more than 300 miles per hour.

Rose knew the risks that came with his crowd-pleasing adrenaline rush. Two years earlier, in 1966, he'd lost both his legs below the knee when he crashed another dragster called the Green Monster. He wore prosthetics for the rest of his life.

Rose spent decades working the drag racing circuit in the Green Mamba. When the racing dried up, he and the car kept entertaining the crowds, using the jet engine to torch cars, 18-wheelers and motorcycles.

He met Jeanne about 20 years ago. By then, he'd been living in Tampa for about a decade. They married on Sept. 12, 2006.

The Green Mamba made national headlines that same year when thieves stole the car from Rose's apartment complex off Waters Avenue. Authorities tracked it to a local repair shop and arrested the owner, but the Mamba had been chopped up and stripped down.

The couple worked for months to rebuild Mamba so Rose could again hurtle down a straightaway or set fire to scrap metal.

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"That's where all the fun is," he told a Times reporter in 2007.

He was diagnosed last year with angiosarcoma, a cancer of the inner lining of blood vessels. Doctors said chemotherapy would extend his life, but they couldn't say for how long.

The two moved to Ringtown, Pa., in December to be closer to family including Jeanne's cousin, with whom she has a business selling goat milk soap.

"Doug's philosophy was, 'If I can get up and run my car and make the world happy, that's what I'm going to do,'?" she said. "He was doing what he loved and that brings me a lot of comfort."

Jeanne Rose said there will be memorials in Milwaukee, Pennsylvania and Florida.

As for the Green Mamba, she said there's enough left of her husband's prized possession to restore and she plans to seek donations to make that happen. After that, she will keep a promise Doug made to "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, founder of the drag racing museum in Ocala, to display the Green Mamba there when Doug retired.

Said Jeanne: "She's not going to be left by the wayside."

Contact Tony Marrero at tmarrero@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3374.