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This is my street-legal jet car on full afterburner. The car has two engines: the production gasoline engine in the front driving the front wheels and the jet engine in the back. The idea is that you drive around legally on the gasoline engine and when you want to have some fun, you spin up the jet and get on the burner (you can start the jet while driving along on the gasoline engine). The car was built because I wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible. With this project, I was able to use some stuff I learned while getting my fancy engineering degree (I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University) to design the car without the distraction of how other people have done it in the past - because no one has. I don't know how fast the car will go and probably never will. The car was built to thrill me, not kill me. That doesn't stop me from the occasional blast on the highway though.

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The car is licensed here in California. In California, new cars have bi-annual smog inspections so if you modify the engine, it is likely to fail the inspection and you won't be able to drive it on the street. There are some exempt engine modifications (ex. after-cat mufflers - big deal) but none that will allow you to add 1350 hp to a new car.

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Car was built to look as if VW delivered the car this way. It handles fine and is safe. I was thinking of putting it into an import car show but the promoter told me that it looked too plain and recommended that I put some decals on it, lower it, and put on some aftermarket wheels. Sure kid, put on some flimsy wheels won't take a curb and don't center on the hubs, lower the car so the tires rub and get cut by the body using springs that bounce me all over the road, and advertise for companies that couldn't engineer themselves out of a paper bag. I would have thought the 14" diameter tailpipe was enough for him but I guess it wasn't. Response from the hot rod magazines has been slow. One editor told me that is because I didn't use anything they advertise. But the response to driving it on the street and going to the hot rod shows (San Francisco Custom Car Show, Grand National Show in Pomona, and the Detroit Autorama) has been fantastic. This car attracts crowds better than any '32 Ford, '69 Camaro, or decaled Honda.

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The Beetle was chosen because it looks cool with the jet and it shows it off well. Remember the Hurst wheelstanding Barracuda "Hemi Under Glass"? Well, this is "Jet Under Glass". Air for the jet enters the car through the two side windows and the sunroof. It's a little windy inside but not unbearable.

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The production hatch release switch on the driver's door activates two new latches (one on each side) and the hatch pops open just like a production car. The "hatch not closed" warning light works too.

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Here you can see the split in the tailpipe after a particularily rude burner pop. All fixed and reinforced now. The heat blanket keeps the plastic bumper from melting when the jet is operating.

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The back of the gauge panel was kept open to give the car a techie look. Something to talk about. The car's an engineering device, let's see some engineering thingies. The aluminum panel was designed in SolidWorks and cut out of billet, bead blasted, clear annodized, and then the labels for the switches were milled into the front using a font matching the VW cluster. Little details like the holes having flat sides so the switches don't spin and exactly matching the contour of the dash added time to the project. Several versions were made out of styrofoam first to get the layout and lighting right. From the back, the panel reminds me of the 1970s McLaren CanAm cars.

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The first thing I did when I got the car was to cut the hole in the back for the engine. Made a fancy jig out of a tripod, a rod, and a lawnmower wheel to mark out the cut and went at it with a pneumatic saw. Then finished it off with jeweler's files. No paint required. Didn't even chip. The hole was tricky because it goes through 3 layers (bumper and two layers of metal) and it's a circle projected onto angled surfaces. Just finding the centerline of the car wasn't trivial. Worrying what my neighbors would say if I ruined the back of a brand-new car made me REAL careful. I believe the hole is within 2 mm.

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There are three gauges for the jet: %RPM, Oil Pressure, and Turbine Inlet Temperature. The most important is turbine inlet temperature. If you exceed about 650 degrees C for very long, you damage the engine. This is critical on start-up. You don't want a "hot-start". The throttle for the jet engine is located next to the gear selector. It is a lever and has three buttons: Cool, Big-Fire, and Afterburner. "Cool" leans out the engine and is used to lower the turbine inlet temperature if you get a hot-start. To light big-fire or the afterburner, you hold a button down and 1/2 second later, press the hot-streak button on the floor. Then things happen! Notice the kerosene level gauge in front of the gear selector (jet fuel is mostly kerosene) and the bud vase missing a rose. Where did it go?

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Lotsa stuff back here. The force from the jet is tied to the vehicle through sandwich plates inside the car bolted to contoured aluminum billets that were slid into the frame rails. You can see the billet on the left side with a hole in its center, welded to the plate with 4 bolts. Used helium as the inert gas and a lot of current to weld that chunk of aluminum. To return the car to its production height, adjustable spring perches were used. Same spring rate, just corrected the ride height. Drives and handles fine. Kerosene is stored in a custom 14 gallon, baffled, foam-filled kevlar fuel cell in the spare tire well. Two fuel exits in the back: a -12 on the left side and a -10 on the right. The -10 goes to a shutoff, then a Barry Grant pump (one of the few hot rod parts on the car), then up into the car where it sees a filter, a regulator, and an electrical shutoff valve before feeding the engine. The -12 goes into a shutoff, then a 1.5 hp, 11,000 rpm, 24V custom electric pump. Pump is magnesium and can maintain 100 psi at 550 gph. From the pump it goes into the car to a filter, then a large regulator, and then to the afterburner solenoid and the big-fire solenoid (to left of pump and feeding bottom of tailpipe through orange covered hose). Fuel system was tested for flow capability. Above the big pump you can see the relocated gasoline cap actuator and all that black stuff on the right side is the stock fuel evaporative control equipment. All circuits feeding solenoids and pumps have fuses, relays, kick-back diodes to minimize contact arcing, sealed connectors, and use automotive wires of a gauge giving a maximum of 1V drop over the circuit loop.

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The engine is a General Electric Model T58-8F. This is a helicopter turboshaft engine that was converted to a jet by some internal modifications and a custom tailpipe. The engine spins up to 26,000 RPM (idle is 13,000 RPM), draws air at 11,000 CFM, and is rated at 1350 hp. It weighs only 300 lbm. It grows as it warms up so the engine mounts have to account for this. The mounts in the front are rubber and the back are sliding mounts on rubber. The structure holding the engine was designed using finite element analysis and is redundant. Strong, damage tolerant, and light. Second battery and fuse/relay panel on the right, halon fire system and 5 gallon dry sump tank on left. 24V starter motor is in the nose of the engine. 700 A of current goes into that motor for 20 seconds during start-up. Due to heat, must limit starts to three in one hour. Big screen is to avoid FOD (foreign object damage). Jet keeps sucking the rose out of the bud vase on the dash!

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A lot of attention to details in the car. Note the aluminum block holding/protecting the halon gas line, pull line, harness to engine, and oil pressure line. Rectangular tank under inlet screen is for various fuel drains. Note temperature gauge and shutoff valve for dry sump tank. 3 gallons of turbine oil at $25/quart (ouch!). Two-stage PPG paint matching exterior of car was used inside the car. It is not easy to paint around a lot of bars, etc while crouched in a car, in your dusty home garage, avoiding drips, and with your wife screaming that the fumes will cause brain damage in the kids. Especially with two-stage where you have multiple coats and critical drying times. Kids passed their grades so I guess damage was minimal, but more importantly, the paint turned out great!

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Street racing action. The other guy wimped out after a few "big-fire" demonstrations. What you see in the picture is about one-twentieth the full size of the fireball. Guy standing beside car had never seen it run before and was smiling ear-to-ear throughout the show. Had I launched, I would have burned him to a crisp. Well, live and learn.

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We get this a lot. A police officer picking at his nose while trying to figure out what to charge me with. Notice the hopeful anticipation of us on the right. We're rooting for him and offer suggestions but unfortunately, the California Department of Motor Vehicles did not anticipate such a vehicle so he's out of luck. Hmmm, the car has two engines making the car a hybrid so maybe we can drive in the commuter lanes along with the Toyota Priuses.

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The car was built in this garage. Paint, welding, everything except some mill work. That's me standing beside the engine that is out of the car for some fuel controller work. The orange line is for the afterburner. There's one on the other side too. Here you can make out the four rows of variable inlets/stators at the front of the engine. Their angle changes with engine speed and is used to avoid compressor stall. There are 11 compressor stages and 2 turbine stages. The engine's pressure ratio is 8.3:1. That's how you work on a jet engine. Stick it on its end. Easy to store them that way too.

Why would you do that to a car.

f***

What would happen if it was on a treadmill ??

it would probably take off to the future... welcome Rev to 1999 :)

im pretty sure i could still beat him

With a stick?

could really do with more boobs

im pretty sure theres no point to rockets unless you get boob

also, continuing the nights festivities for the very win

looks to me like hes already been beaten with the ugly stick

hahaha what a sleeper :P wonder what its top speed is

my zubb is still bigger.

needs more tesla coils

the new VW beetle, biggest fag car ever. Cool jet though. There is no practical purpose as to why he put a jet engine on a car, but obviously being an engineering enthusiast, it was probably a lot of fun for him...

I'm studying mech engineering atm, maybe I'll build something cool too :)

kind of interesting mod
not sure it earns him that much arrogance tho

needs racing stripes

Uhm, don't alot of 'fast' street cars (and definately dragsters) rape F14's/F16's etc. at a drag race down the strip. simply because Jet engines take so long to build up.

So really... this entire thing is pretty pointless as far as acceleration would be concerned?

Pretty sure a standard petrol engine pounding out 1400HP (same as that Jet engine would accelerate faster, first).

Also, if it sucks 11,000CFM of air... Woldn't it starve itself (and the driver :P) if the windows were up? =]

it's a nice peice of work, but I was hoping for an electric car eh

I hear there's a guy down in Melbourne who'll convert any small-medium size car to batteries now.. anyone know if this is happening here in Qld???

pointless? he has a f***ing *afterburner* out the back of his car.

That is the s***.

a normal gas turbine would have been impressive enough... but an afterburner? lol

hmmm might help melt the ice caps quicker

More here

http://www.ronpatrickstuff.com/

now lets see TopGear do a feature on it

after all Jeremy , it's one of those EnviroMental Hybrids :-)

Cheers

Das Meat/-\xe

How does something that spews out flame 10 foot from the back of the car be street legal?

yes, the mind boggles at retarded motor vehicle regulations

just the way it hangs out the back a meter or so alone is dodgy enough, let alone the flameball

imagine the understeer

And it runs on what, Beetlejuice?

It's not Australian, that's why.

In QLD at least, It's also illegal to modify any body panel frame.
Which means any point on any panel that is designed for structural integrity for that panel or the entire vehicle - this includes the bonnet, doors, boot, guards, etc. Exlcuding, AFAIK Panel Skins.

The boot of that VW has clearly been cut through the frame of the boot lid. Which would land you a f***-me-in-the-ass-canary in QLD alone.

So yeah, the thing isn't street legal in QLD I imagine.
Not to mention, you can't even use a flame-kit on the street (ok to have connected for sanctioned shows) which only gives a couple of foot of flame. Let alone an afterburner.

Australia's regulations are also retarded in various ways from state to state

Also, many vehicle mods can be engineered and complianced. And I'd like to see the regulation that makes it illegal to modify the frame of any body panel.

Loki said it so it must be true.

That looked like s***.

That is all.

maybe it is true I dunno
I just recall looking for the regulations on it in the past and not being able to find anything, admittedly I didn't spend much time on it cos it was boring

Would it take off on a treadmill?

I see what you clint there

clint. pronounced 'klynt'. v. to excessively use a popular Internet cliche to the point of inducing nausea.

Also, many vehicle mods can be engineered and complianced. And I'd like to see the regulation that makes it illegal to modify the frame of any body panel.

Yeah that's true.
But I meant for example, I don't know how you'd get away with [or getting an engineering check] for taking a grinder to a door frame and taking a big section out of it...

It's all intrusion protection and safety I imagine.
I'm no engineer but I'd imagine changing the shape of a frame would change the way it crumples [or not at all] on impact. (different folding points etc.?)

In the end, I'm not going to cut a circular hole in my boot and take it to QLD Transport to see if it gets defected or not to find out =]

I'm no engineer but I'd imagine changing the shape of a frame would change the way it crumples [or not at all] on impact.

fortunately for him, he is an engineer and he doesn't live in Queensland so i guess your point is moot.

Fortunately for me, you're a retard so I get to point out why you pointing out my point is moot, is moot.

Because, if you re-read correctly with more than 3 brain cells. I stated that the car isn't in Australia/QLD, and hence forth why it's not so 'unbelievable' that it might be street legal...

So I put it to you, that my new point, is that you have the intellectual capacity of a Gnat.

P.S. Plzreply so I can troll your troll. ktxhbi!

last edited by Loki at 18:31:27 17/Jul/07

that cars s***

check out this car

http://www.s1-media.com/d/10918-1/IMG_8140_1280.jpg

fark yeeaaahhh

car thread go?

last edited by maxe at 18:39:20 17/Jul/07

Needs less Advans Tri-spokesomethingsmissingfrommywheels :P

needs more cars that are running imo

thats not a jet car, this is a jet car

nitromethane is cooler

Huh, it just sits there?

it takes off right at the end
haha that was awesome - turbo diesel + jet, pwns all over that veedub

... but it's a VW beetle. No, not the old one which looked s*** enough as it was, but the new 'improved' even s***tier looking one.

I thought only 17 chicks drove those cars? Guess I was wrong.