Why am I not surprised? I once read about someone placing a jet engine on a car just for kicks. It took them a while to figure this out after they wondered what made the big splat on the side of a mountain.
The way I heard it was that it was a JATOB, Jet Assist Take-Off Bottle, straped to the trunk of a car. The bottles are used to get military planes up to speed on short runways.
Long before the D.A. winner left the road at a curve, the brakes had been smoked by the no doubt terrified guy standing on them cause he was really moving.
Somebody estimated 300MPH, who knows.
Urban legend...I heard it was not true.