Monday 8th May 2006

Man makes 1,450bhp Beetle

Jet engine adds overtaking opportunities

---

If ever you were tempted to install a jet engine in a VW Beetle, don't bother: it's been done.

Ron Patrick, a 48-year-old Stanford-trained engineer and owner of US engineering firm ECM which makes instruments used by car makers, has mounted a 26,000 rpm General Electric T58-8F jet engine in the back of the new Beetle. The computer-designed machine, on which Patrick has lavished $250,000 is street-legal too, as it still contains the standard petrol engine with its emissions controls intact. It's just the huge cigar shape poking out the rear that gives away its 1,450bhp.

The question of course is why. Patrick said: "The purpose of this car is to have fun and be stupid. It's a toy, a toy for silly boys."

• Original story: When bugs fly

^{Picture by Don Patrick}

[waynepixel]

Love it. Hurray for the mad man.

[beano500]

"The purpose of this car is to have fun and be stupid."

[dogwatch]

Wouldn't want to be behind that at traffic lights....

[tonto]

Wouldn't want to be behind it in say a Caterham or an Atom when he utters the infamous word, "Engage" at the traffice lights

[r988]

might be a bit worrying being his neighbour as well

original article said:

Speaking of which, his own front yard may very well be the site of his next project, after he's through fiddling with his current one -- a Honda motor scooter powered by twin Cruise missile jet motors. The front yard experiment goes like this: A year or two ago, Patrick, through his connections in the surplus military equipment world, found himself at a "secret, but now defunct air force base in Poland," one that had been used by Warsaw Pact forces during the Cold War. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Soviet-era armaments began showing up on various black and not-so-black markets. The men running the Polish air force base were trying to sell Patrick an SA-2 missile. This is the ubiquitous surface-to-air missile used by the Soviet Union and nearly all its military allies. It was an SA-2 that shot down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane in 1960. Not only were the guys at the air base trying to sell Patrick an SA-2, "they were saying, 'you want a MiG 21 (fighter jet)? I'll sell you two tanks and a MiG.' " . "So they wanted $2,000 for the missile," Patrick said, "and I had a bottle of ouzo and after a while I got them down to a grand." He still hasn't got the 35-foot-long missile, but he does know what he'll do with it once it clears U.S. customs. (Good luck.) "I want to build a missile silo on my front lawn," he said. "It'll have those electric-opening silo doors and I'll have a set of lights for it. Then, at night, I open the silo doors and raise the missile up, with those lights on it."

[White_van_Man]

[mcjohn]

Great just for the hell of it....

But I suspect that this is only US show-stuff! The guy was only cleaning up his backyard... ;->

>> Edited by mcjohn on Monday 8th May 11:14

[Tonsko]

an idiot who knows what he's doing said:

Speaking of which, his own front yard may very well be the site of his next project, after he's through fiddling with his current one -- a Honda motor scooter powered by twin Cruise missile jet motors.

The man is a genius. lol.

>> Edited by Tonsko on Monday 8th May 11:21

[zumbruk]

There's more of this about than you might think;

www.marineturbine.com/motorsports.asp
www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000483065460/

[The Wiz]

Get this guy on Top Gear pronto.

[docevi1]

ahem.

ahem.

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=266764

[r988]

Tonsko said:

an idiot who knows what he's doing said: Speaking of which, his own front yard may very well be the site of his next project, after he's through fiddling with his current one -- a Honda motor scooter powered by twin Cruise missile jet motors. The man is a genius. lol.

This was also powered by a couple of cruise missile motors


and more jet powered karts
www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/turbinenuts.shtml

and of course the later model MR2 with twin J85s
http://paultan.org/archives/2005/07/3


I've always thought a Ferrari Testarossa would be a good choice for a jet transplant

[stu_the_flat]

I like the way the jet engine is placed to obsucre the number plate from speed cameras.

"ha ha they'll never be able to proove that it was my jet powered bettle going thruogh the speed trap"

[pod]

Only in the good old us of a could you getaway with this, street legal with 10 foot flame coming out the back. Health and safty would go nut over here. Better start importing a few demand could be high;

[J111]

zumbruk said:

There's more of this about than you might think; www.marineturbine.com/motorsports.asp www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000483065460/

They're both shaft driven from turbine engines, rather than jet powered. A (slightly) more sensible proposition, as raced by Richie Ginther and Graham Hill for Rover/BRM/Owen Racing at Le Mans in '63:



>> Edited by J111 on Monday 8th May 15:35

[FestivAli]

Finally a VW beetle that I like. Kudos to this man. Kudos to this man and all that he touches (so long as it finishes up jet powered).

Ali.

[pies]

docevi1 said:

ahem. ahem. www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=266764

Ted does this thread qualify as a Repost

[itz_baseline]

aritcle said:

....is street-legal too.

WTF - how? Are there not laws against having a flame thrower attached to the back of your car?

[Mr J]

Says it is street legal since it contains the old engine, so I assume that is what you are meant to use when driving around on the street. But when noone is looking....

[munky]

itz_baseline said:

aritcle said: ....is street-legal too. WTF - how? Are there not laws against having a flame thrower attached to the back of your car?

not in "sarf efrika"