Red Thunder — John Varley

The loss of the Mars-bound Ares Seven ship was the final blow to the U.S. space program. Everyone's accepted that the Chinese will be the first to reach the Red Planet.

Well, almost everyone.

In a deserted Daytona warehouse, seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out of old tanker cars, determination, and all-American guts. They call her Red Thunder, and they've geared the beautiful beast to rescue Ares Seven and beat the Chinese to Mars--in just under four days. That's over three million miles an hour. It would sound like history in the making if it didn't sound so insane. Is it possible? Anything's possible.