The Pratt & Whitney J34-WE-48 jet engine is a powerhouse – capable of 12,000 horsepower each with the afterburner cookin’. When a trio of them are mounted to the back of the 1984 Peterbilt semi truck christened Shockwave, 375 MPH on land is the top speed.

The Shock Wave started rolling down airstrips and dragstrips back in 1984 at the hands of Les Shockley, the original builder, and wowed crowds all over the country in the years since before Les parked it a few years ago, after Kent Shockley put on many epics performance behind the wheel.

This video, shot in 2011 at the Capitol Air Show in California, is a whopping 14-plus minutes long and shows Kent cranking on the wheel, smacking the afterburners for all they’re worth, and running huge speeds on the long airstrip. The real action starts around ten minutes in, so we’ve set up the video for you to view from that point on, but feel free to restart it if jets are your thing. 

There are a ton of levers in the cab — each one has a specific purpose, and Shockley is busy from start to finish, adjusting thrust, steering, basically driving the thing with all he’s got.

The red handle directs the thrust upwards so that the fire doesn’t melt the track when the afterburners kick in. The three bent levers in the middle at the throttles for the three jet engines, which are all tied together, and the long lever with the knob shuts the engine down and deploys the parachutes.

The lever closest to Shockley is for the afterburners, which dumps raw diesel and creates the burner pops that everyone loves so much. And when he reaches up to the roof, he’s adjusting the fire that comes out of the roof stacks. Right after he adjusts his gloves, he goes for a wild 300MPH ride — enjoy it while it lasts, because it isn’t too long!

This video shows just how much concentration the driver needs to have when piloting a jet dragster of any type, and gives us a new respect for the ability needed to do so.

Today the Shockwave is owned and driven by Chris and Neal Darnell, campaigned as part of a trio of jet-powered trucks out of the Flash Fire Jet Trucks stables. In fact, the Shock Wave can be seen on its 30th Anniversary tour this year, with the next event scheduled at the Vectren Dayton Air Show June 28-29, 2014 in Dayton, Ohio.

Outside Video From The Same Day